001welcome everyone and thank you for coming on this rainy evening it's raining here in Rutland like crazy right now um what I'd also like to do is welcome our two new student members so Kenichi gomi and Katherine Mangus a welcome to both of you we appreciate you taking time out of your school vacation already and you're sitting in on a meeting so that's pretty impressive um and we'll we'll give you guys time to um talk a little bit about yourselves uh in our meeting uh in a little bit just probably a 35 to 45 minute presentation if you don't mind that's a joke all right so on to um what we need to do this evening so um sorry you know what I keep getting Rebecca for some reason I keep getting the admit deny
002entry things so Dedra has now joined us nope you're good Daryl I got it okay dedra's in so um what I would like to do is Al welcome our new members uh to the school committee so we have returning members who um were voted back in and I did put that in my report and we also have four new members so we have Nicole Amos Christa Bennett Dedra Shapiro and Kelly Williamson so welcome to uh the watch Regional School District committee uh we appreciate you um taking time and effort and um joining our our group as we kind of Traverse this the the unknown uh over the next several months uh the next order of business will be to um conduct our virtual um election of a chairperson for the committee um what I need
003to do also is just tell you that we're going to conduct this by roll call um typically it's a paper ballot but um because we're virtual we're going to be doing this by roll call um I also have two items that uh Naomi asked me to just review uh in reference to the wsdc bylaws um because again we have specific language it says paper ballot but Naomi feels as though we're good to go with um this particular um process so I'm going to read these two section section two organizational meeting the watusa Regional School District committee shall in accordance with Section 13 of the amended Regional agreement organize and elect a chair and a vice chair and if the offices are vacant a secretary and treasurer the chair and vice chair shall be members of
004the committee the committee shall elect a chair and vice Chair by paper ballot from its membership in accordance with chapter 71 section 16a of mgl the secretary and Treasurer may or may not be members of the committee and if not may be reimbursed for their work this organizational meeting shall be posted at least 14 days in advance section three chair Vice chair no member may be elected as the chair of the committee unless said member has served on the committee for at least two years prior to assuming the office of the chair no member may be elected as the vice chair of the committee unless said member has served on the committee for at least two years prior to assuming the office of the vice chair the offices of chair and vice chair shall be
005for a term of one year and they may not succeed themselves more than three additional times should the chair be unable to complete the one-year term of office the vice chair shall assume all duties and responsibilities of the chair to the completion of the one year term should the vice chair be unable to complete the one-year term of office for reasons including being elevated to the position of chair then the committee at its next regular meeting shall elect the vice chair should the chair and vice chair vacate the position simultaneously the committee at its next regular scheduled meeting she'll elect a chair and vice chair to serve the balance of the one-year term so you can also see all of these bylaws on the wsdc website so I would now like to accept nominations for
006uh chair of the committee I nominate Meg I would like to nominate o Megan weeks okay so we have a nomination for Megan weeks Linda long Bal is there a second second okay second are there any other nominations seeing none uh Rebecca do you want to take the roll call votes I do hold on okay all right I'm going to just go by last names Amos AB any with a hand raised question okay I didn't see that okay go ahead who has a question it looked like Malia raised her hand yeah well I this is was yeah I was gonna I was going to nominate Megan as well so I'm good okay all right I W I was actually going to nominate Mike okay so you're gonna nominate Mike okay is there a second second
007okay excuse me who is the second second was Matt okay so hold on so Malaya nominated Mike thank you Matt seconded okay could I have a point of order here um sure our our voting um dictates paper ballots and I'm a firm believer that paper ballots are much different than a roll call vote where somebody's vote can influence others is there an opportunity for us to take a paper ballot and email Rebecca the secretary where she would be able to tabulate the responses per Naomi per Naomi per Naomi no email she was adamant about no email I'm just that a roll call vote is much different than a paper ballot vote excuse me we have other options could we could we use the feature to send our vote directly to Rebecca well if you do
008that then um everyone sees the the chat but Google kichi yeah what did you say a Google form yes um you can make one answer that is just blank and we can just type in the name of the person who we want to nominate or vote for and that could solve the problem pretty easily but the problem is in order to do in order to spread this Google form it's a link so you need to use email right right and that's Naomi said specifically no email no email Christina you had a question yeah I would just say I mean I understand Matt's point but we do roll call votes all the time and as individuals I think that we can handle not being influenced by others that's how we it's how we conduct our business
009is in the public um I don't see this as different okay Laura you had something no you're all all set okay Ken Ken had his hand raised Ken I don't know if we could all write it down on a piece of paper and show it to the camera at a certain point in time I don't know if that's you know everyone have already had it written down I don't know if that's a compromise or not that sounds like um let's see Rebecca do you have the um Naomi's statement around this yep if you give me one minute and Bob ember's video is not working you guys can't see me right okay can you can you hear me yeah we can hear you last last Monday June 22nd at 6:09 p.m Naomi wrote you should do
010this by roll call vote in absolutely no email votes Naomi stoneberg I say we follow her advice I'm happy to share this email with school committee but that's what she sent last week I think that was one of the original concerns Matt was that it was it specifies in the the bylaws that it's a paper ballot so uh which is one of the reasons why Rebecca reached directly out to Naomi about that so my my concern would be this why an individual email from a member of the committee to Rebecca being the secretary without notifying anybody else on that just individual member to rebec where she tabulated those I don't see how that would be any different than a paper or any type of of violation it's actually has an electronic time stamp and it
011actually covers us to say this is who I voted for at that time so I'm wondering if her interpretation of email was thinking that it would be an email going around to the whole body I don't see the logic why individual EMA Rebecca would not suffice I'd say Matt because you cannot verify that you're actually the one that you sent the email unless we check your IP address so it's we hold our other votes in public I I I can make my own decision about who I'm going to vote for and not be influenced by others and I think that other members would say the same yeah that's not my concern on the influence of my concern is that a roll call vote is different than a paper ballot vote It Is by by definition
012of it and for us to just say we're gonna disregard our written bylaws because an attorney are you freaking kidding me I'm sorry the circumstances are changed let's be real man and if you want my video doesn't work but you can hear me and if you don't want to listen to me when I say what I think I'm happy to be the first to write a chat because that's all I can do right now but you can't see me but this is bizarre bullsh at you show no respect I had the floor and you took over per usual Bob okay so you can tell I'm not going to be chair because I'm not doing a very good job part of the meeting so I want to apologize to everyone right now you wna chat from
013me or do you want me to to say what I want don't you're you're invalidating my vote and it's not okay so what we will do and again I will what we can do is we we've requested that Naomi give us feedback around how we are to um vote through this process she said to do it this way take email off of the off of the table so um I suggest we move forward with this process and um then what we will do is uh continue with the meeting and go from there so Rebecca are you set uh I'm good are we ready okay yes we are so it's weeks or Dennis yes Amos obstain Bennett Christa I'll go back sorry I was muted abstain Brown Megan weeks Dennis uh Dennis gersen Dennis Haber Dennis
014Ember weeks kers bomb Laura excuse me Laura again Dennis Lavoy Dennis long be long long long oh Jesus Linda I'm sorry long that's fine uh Weeks Mills Mills weeks Mitchell Mitchell Dennis otmar Omar weeks Shapiro Shapiro obain Silva Silva Dennis Smith Smith weeks weeks weeks Williamson Williamson Dennis Dennis okay uh would uh weeks young weeks one moment please one second please nine for Megan weeks eight for Mike Dennis congratulations chairperson weeks do a great job thank you member okay so chair weeks you get to take over the meeting thank you everybody Welcome to regular meeting 13 four six no no Megan we need we need to do Vice chair Vice chair all right let me go um are there nominations for vice chair of the watus it Regional School District school committee I'll nominate Dennis
015nomination for Dennis is there a second and who nominated who nominated please uh Ben okay second Mills Mills is the second okay are there any other nominations nominate member Silva member Lavoy nominates member Silva is there a second second second second Brown y are there any other nominations seeing none we have two members we have member Dennis and we have member Silva Oh I thought there was excuse me this is Linda I thought that someone nominated member Mills no he seconded oh yeah I seconded it yeah I was just identifying myself as a second Rebecca I'd like to make a nomination then sure I'd like like to nominate Christina Smith member Smith is there a second second that is seconded by member by member who member in yes so now we have three nominations a
016nomination for member Dennis a nomination for member uh Silva and a nomination for members are there any others can we you know I apologize for this hold on one second everyone please go ahead Rebecca okay never mind I'm good go ahead I'm perfect I'm perfect sounds good um any others okay we'll go by roll call vote Amos I'm sorry just have a point of order I have a point of order chair yes um has Christina been Vice chair as long as I was chair because I don't think the vice chair can succeed herself for four years I don't no I think I think Bob was chair your first year Vice chair your first year memory I think I don't remember being Vice he was you have to weigh on that I remember would better than
017I would pre-retirement B Bob comments in the chat he was just not memorable point of order for a just a clarifying question is this a uh with three people is this a majority or um plurality my understanding would be by majority does anyone know what our bylaws say can look it up real quick [Music] in the bylaws it just States the two things that darl had already stated is that it's a paper ballot 14 days in advance my understanding it would be a majority vote so I again I'm I wouldn't I think it's your call at the end of the day um chair um first weeks but my recollection is that when we had three people in in in in a in an election that it was plurality not majority okay I I recall the
018same um I think if if perhaps the secretary could I I recall when we had paper ballots we'd have multiple colors and copies for the plurality but I would just ask Rebecca that Rebecca do you have any clarification on this matter no we do the two different colors in the event that you have to vote twice twice if it was because of a you know tie or whatever and you had to go to a second a second vote that's the reason for the two colors that was my understanding as well are there any other points of order or can we resume a roll call vote well I guess which which standard are we going to use are we going to use plurality or major i' be in favor of using majority but if it comes
019to a tie ability to go to a second vote so for clarification plurality would be the person who gets the most votes majority would be the majority of members right right so I do think in the past we've probably done plurality if we had multiple candidates but I I don't know that we've had three um we haven't had my time on the committee so I we really need to know what the standard is before we hold hold the vote correct if you're going to go by my recollection from the past it's the member who gets the most most votes is voted in as chair and as Vice chair plurality then yep okay so we will go on plurality with that in mind we'll start with member Amos obain member Bennett abstain member Brown Smith member
020Dennis Dennis member G Dennis member habber Dennis member Haynes Jeff is not here member Ember Smith excuse me Bob Ember he has a chat as Smith okay uh Smith member Christian B Dennis member Lavoy Dennis member long bullo Smith member Mills Dennis M Mitchell Dennis member atar Silva member Shapiro obain member Silva um since it's plal Silva member Smith member Smith I'm gonna vote for Dennis the chair abstains member Williamson Dennis member Woodland Dennis and member young Dennis secretary where do you have that vote please just give me a mo moment take your time hold on one second it is uh Dennis 11 Smith three Silva two welcome byce Dennis thank you uh try to do my best Dan Quail impersonation may you be memorable I will now entertain a motion to adjourn this organizational
021meeting so moved so moved so move second seconded as is our policy um especially to new members during remote times we take a roll call vote for pretty much everything so I apologize this seems tedious but it's just the way we do things via the Internet so member Amos member Bennett abstain member brown brown yes yes M Haber Haber yes M Ember yes member Chan bomb yes member leoy yes member Mills Mills yes member Mitchell yes M yes member Shapiro Shapiro yes member Silva Silva yes member Smith Smith yes weeks yes member Williamson yes member Woodland yes and member young yes okay the meeting is adjourned with that your break is very minimal if anybody would like to grab a quick drink of water but we're coming right back to it when you're ready okay
022I like to call to order regular meeting 1346 of the woit Regional School District on tonight June 30th 2020 um the meeting is to begin at 7:27 p.m. um I'm excited to have you guys all tonight via Google meets um this meeting is being recorded are we live now on um Holden TV I just want to make sure we're all set before we move forward so I'm sorry Megan yes you are in the organizational meeting was as well excellent all right we're going to start tonight as we have in last few meetings with the public hearing um members of the public if You' wish your voices to be heard please forward any questions to questions at wrsd.net that is questions wrsd.net and we'll be happy to read your comments in the second half of the
023meeting tonight um we do have a few comments um to begin our meeting tonight and I'd like to read those for the public um the the first public comment comes from Bridget Deo um who lives at 20 holding Road in Sterling Massachusetts she states hello I hope you are enjoying your summer so far I know that you're Fielding a lot of questions regarding school budget but I wanted to ask one my question is what is the rationale to include Middle School sports in the tier 2 Cuts as I understand Middle School sports our Fields Co our fees cover transportation and referee fees the approximate $62,000 that is in tier 2 is paying for the coach's salaries me doesn't make much sense to cut an entire program of three seasons with up to two to three
024Sports per each season for five schools $62,000 seems like such a small expense for programs that touch so many kids this one particular cut hits close to home as my daughter is entering eighth grade and is looking forward to participating in her last year school sports I I also feel this decision is not taking into account the mental and physical health of the kids from our five schools especially after they have lost so much over the past few months I understand that ideally we would have no budget cuts and these decisions are very challenging I've also reached out to State reps re uh requesting funding for our school district thank you in advance for our guidance point of order I believe we have members of the public that that came to this meeting at 700
025p.m. and are waiting to speak live um let me check see who we have on our meeting tonight thank you member ly are there members of the public here waiting to speak live I believe B mcnamer is yes I was gonna have her speak next if that's okay B do you have a minute or are you in a rush I have a minute okay do you mind if I just read there's just two more emails course yeah no problem okay but if you'd rather go first that's fine by me that's okay I'll wait it's it's my first time here so me too a little n all right so Belle if you don't mind me just reading one or two more of these um okay so here's a second letter that was submitted to us tonight
026by Sarah conference Smith and Benjamin conr Smith um their address is not included um dear chair Mills and members of the school committee we are writing to express our concern and displeasure at the proposal to pay AA Transportation 75% of the money the district would have paid for bus services during the shutdown period to start the practice of paying for services not received only recently became legal under an act relative Municipal governance during the covid-19 emergency signed by the governor on June 5th this speaks volumes about whether or not such actions are in the public interest to be clear spending taxpayer money for nothing in return is not in the public interest but these are unprecedented times and thus it is understandable that the governor would sign such legislation to support vendors such as Transportation
027companies who are at the risk of becoming financially insolvent however this must not excuse the school committee from its responsibility to perform Financial due diligence on behalf of the taxpayers and to prioritize the education of our students it is vital that the school committee and wrsd administration are confident that a transportation is indeed at serious Financial Risk before committing tax dollars for services not rendered anything less is a dation of fiduciary responsibility to tax payers and students thus far the District administration has been unable to demonstrate Financial vulnerability on behalf of AA transport because AA has been unwilling to share financial information with the district if AA is concerned about disclosing Private Financial information to a public body an independent financial analysis by a CPA could be conducted and should be a precondition on settling
028on any amount we question aa's claim to need 75% in order to sustain financially visibility because the two major costs are currently not being borne by AA these are employee wages and fuel costs AA Transportation has argued that they need more money to protect their employees but AA bus drivers were laid off and thus should be receiving unemployment including an state and federal bonus money two fuel is a substantial cost for a transportation company but during the shutdown period the company was not using fuel District administration and some of the school committee seem fearful that AA will refuse to provide bus services next year if we do not meet the demands of the company this is understandable but should not drive hasty decisions without any transparency or evidence from the vendor we're in a multi-year
029contract surely that contract has protection in place for district in Avenues of Financial and legal recourse for breach a contract some members seem concerned that AA will act with retribution and drop wrsc as a client one school Committee Member described the district as backed into a corner the business director seated as if we don't agree to 75% Mr Ein told him he would have to do what he has to do is that the behavior of a quote unquote Community partner no this sounds like a threat further this threat would seem to indicate that AA is not in fact in a dire financial situation a company in desperate need of income does not willingly drop clients the truth is that school committee does not have the financial have the information that it needs to make a
030sound and responsible decision right now AA is not being transparent or forthcoming with information to justify its claim of financial need despite the good news from the four towns that have passed the proposed budget state aid figures remain uncertain wrsd has already laid off 52 teachers and other staff and is planning for additional cuts that would total about 148 teachers and related staff these Cuts include eliminating music for elementary school and language from middle school this is a serious loss for students how many classes or programs can our students be funded with the 1.1 million the committee is considering sending to the bus company the school committee is literally deciding between teachers and paying AA transportation for services not rendered without documentation of the 75% request as parents this is no contest our money should
031be going to ensuring kids have access to music class World Language programs teachers and counselors who help them thrive in challenging times we understand this is not a simple decision yet we're dismayed at the idea of paying 1.1 million to the bus company while let cutting programs for students we're absolutely appalled at the apparent bullying behavior of the bus company weard to the committee to do the right thing not the easy thing offer a fair payment but do not be cowed by threats thank you for your consideration with that being said Bella do you want to take the floor I don't want to keep you waiting at all the name of the speaker member Dennis um hold on one moment let me just pull that back up for you um this was a letter sent
032by Sarah conanan Smith and Benjamin Conan Smith Smith on 47 Birchwood Drive Holden Massachusetts thank you Bella you have the floor take as much time as you need hi um so my name is Bella mamera I live at three Williams Circle in Rutland and I will be speaking about the importance of Arts education funding I am a 2019 ma graduate um I spent the year at Ryder University studying musical theater and I'm transferring to Northeastern in the fall to study music industry and Communications I could speak for a while on my personal experience in the art throughout my schooling but I actually wrote a paper this past semester regarding the importance of Arts education in schools and I never dreamed that I would have to be sitting here asking the district to consider its priorities
033uh the paper is nine pages that I condensed most important points to read today no one should graduate from high school without a robust understanding of what art is and how it relates to one's happiness involving Concepts like cultural development and the continuity of existence one's relationship to Art begins during childhood from the first time we hear a song or a dance to a song for me this was Mrs Arsenal's music class at Glennwood in first grade because of this joyous Encounter of an art artistic experience a child will always associate the awarding experience of learning an art form with the resulting happiness art speaks truth and makes space for life this is why the Arts are so important in our formative years you cannot cut art programs in elementary schools and expect there will
034still be students who want to study the Arts in high school or Beyond because they did not have that integral joyous encounter with art as a child also a 2019th study that included 10,540 students in grades 3 through eight um was conducted in over 42 different schools in Texas the students receiv received an influx of Arts education experiences ranging from before or after school programs to in school performances from professional artists from this trial Dr howood and Dr Kia discussed that an increase in arts education can reduce the proportion of students receiving disciplinary infractions improve writing achievement and increase students compassion for others additionally 86% of the sample consisted of Elementary age students and arts education also gave them more motivation when it came to classroom engagement and aspirations of college not only did the
035artistic experiences strengthen a student skills in unrelated subjects and standardized testing it also had a positive impact on their human characteristics like increased empathy and aspiration when kids return to school they are going to me the Arts and inspiration more than ever also quote successful education is not just about designing a syllabus but it is as much about creating a culture a strong arts program in a school is likely to have a positive impact on pupil's attitudes and in turn on their General performance as seen in the 2019 study students who attended schools with a strong arts program in a culture that values creativity have improved mindsets and can therefore excel in class by demolishing Arts programs in schools think about the message this sends to students it shows that you do not value creativity
036or compassion finally I just want to remind everyone who you turned to during this pandemic you turn to books television and music you turn to artists I was so fortunate to attend a district with a strong arts program and I believe it shaped me into the person and the learner that I am today if the watusa district is struggling with Arts education funding I cannot imagine how other schools in inner city or low-income areas are dealing with this which is why I urge everyone to sign petitions for Congress to pass the heroes act and write to our local state rests found on the tempo Facebook page for some students art is all they have and the only place that they fit in I'll always remember looking forward to my art and music classes and some
037days they were the only reason I got out of bed and had the motivation to sit to my other classes so that's all I have to say thank you B thank you so much for speaking tonight really appreciate it um anybody have a quick message for Belle before we move on I I know I emailed this um the transcript of my nine-page paper to everyone on the committee so thank you to those who responded to me I really appreciate it it exceptionally well written um just kind of to your point I do have one more public comment um from Member Jeffrey Haynes who couldn't be here tonight um but he speaks to um what you've said B he says hello everyone I'm truly sorry I cannot attend tonight's meeting I'm especially disappointed that I'm missing
038my neighbor Bel mn's thoughtful and eloquent report I both appreciate and agree with the points she has raised in particular I'm drawn to a line in her report that underscores the value of different voices and different ideas this resonates with me because after hearing the powerful comments from both students and committee members at our last meeting I feel that it's essential that we form a standing committee on diversity that need has been made painfully clear and we have a moral educational and Society duty to respond thank you and see you next time Jeff so thank you so much B I really appreciate it right um I have one last public comment that came in from Member kersin bomb um member kersin bomb just as a point of order um was this comment from yourself or
039is it just a comment um in general uh this is a comment from myself as a as a um as a parent as a uh member of the community would you like to read it then I'd rather it be in your voice sure thank you uh hello everybody I'm Laura kersen bomb member of the WUSA Regional School District but also I'm speaking tonight um as a parent and citizen of the town of Holden as we know Heidi Ley is stepping down from her position as the teachers union president when I was fairely new new to Holden and a new and concerned parent of an element of elementary school age children I sought information about the watet school district and Clarity on some of the challenges I thought I was seeing in the schools I had
040lots of questions then I met Heidi who was serving as Union president and was collaborating with the citizen group I am yuset to help address the funding concerns both locally and with the Commonwealth to say the least Heidi was a wealth of information to me regarding those concerns she helped me to understand how a Regional School District is resourced versus how a town or city is uh school is resourced Heidi is one of those Educators who relentlessly advocates for the students she teaches as well as all the students of the district to name one specific accomplishment Heidi was instrumental in the development and distribution of the support was wus at schools Campaign which since its Inception has successfully encouraged all five towns to pass the proposed budget and which I predict will be a s
041will be successful again this year as five four out of the five towns have already passed the budget to date second Heidi has tirelessly worked with the MTA to shed light on the Massachusetts chronic underfunding of public schools and specifically the deficient Transportation reimbursement for Regional School Districts Heidi has taken her job as Union president and teacher to to all new heights she is unwavering in her advocacy of our students and the resource needed to support them even if that means giving a reality check to this board once in a while thank you Heidi your Clarity truth-telling and tireless efforts to make our Public Schools better will be missed thank you thank you very much um and I certainly have a lot to learn um and I and I'm hoping that further meetings are presented
042with further Clarity um we're going to move to chair's opening remarks and then move along with our agenda as it is a very full agenda tonight um first of all I was wanted to State very clearly um that I am very honored to accept this position um I am looking forward to this year ahead um that is definitely with significant challenges but I would like to frame it as a year with significant opportunities in this world of covid-19 we have quickly learned that the world can change on a dime within moments that weeks no longer matter months no longer matter but in the matter of hours our whole lives can change for me that means that we as a committee and moreover we as a school district begin to learn what works for kids and
043not simply what works for us that we take this time over the summer to truly listen and learn what has worked for our students during remote learning what hasn't worked and what we can do better as a district moving forward in the future moreover I really look forward to this committee digging in to equity and diversity not simply in our curriculum but also in our hiring practices that we look to one another as a district as a reflection of this great nation and not simply what we have in front of us the need for all voices to be heard is something that I want to work as as chair I want to make these committee meetings a safe and welcoming place for every single member of this committee to have their voice heard especially our
044new members tonight I wanted to very warmly welcome our new members Nicole Amos Christa Bennett dedis Shapiro and Kelly Williamson and I want you guys to know from your first meeting today forward that your voice is as important as any other voice on this committee this should be a place where we are working at the creation and revision of policy to achieve these lofty goals stated above I also want to welcome our returning members member Brown member Dennis Vice chair Dennis um and member Kian bomb moreover I really want to welcome our new student reps member Katherine mag Ag and my Fe fellow Prince tonight um Ki gy um I am so excited to have you guys here and I'm looking forward to your voices really reaching towards what you need as students in our
045district and what we can do to help you in the future um with that being said um I'm looking forward to the superintendent report tonight um superintendent mcco there anything you would like to highlight from your report sure thank you chair weeks um a couple different items that I'd like to address this evening um I've had over the past basically week I've had two pretty um heavy duty conversations with uh the commissioner of education so as you know um the commissioner actually put out the return to school kind of outline for uh where we might be as a as a commonwealth and ultimately as as a district in terms of returning in September so um the nice thing about where you know where we are in reference to um oh and you know what just
046saw that Mike Dennis brought up student reports so if we want we can we can jump right back into those fine thank you I don't need to interrupt that's why I did it in the chat I I thought you could either loop back around or or whatever but um I don't know what they I'm reading too far ahead um do our students want to speak first okay sure why not um hello um my name is Ki uh I am one of the student committee school committee Representatives um as a student I am a going to be a junior at wus Regional High School starting this fall and I'm happy to be here um at High School uh during the fall I usually play uh I participated in cross country I also participate in both winter
047and spring track uh I play the bassoon I play the saxophone uh and I used to play the piano but not anymore it feels weird during covid-19 not being able to go to school um not having to wake up as early although I do try to still maintain a decent schedule but most importantly I there's not much better way to say this I didn't really like how remote learning happened uh we were just given work on Google classroom or email and we were just told to complete an assignment during a week uh the due dates were strict um but they tended to be on Fridays which meant that we could cram work in all the way during the night and we could just submit it at midnight and that's I I did that I can't
048really hide that um but I don't think it was a very effective way of remote learning because obviously because of covid-19 No Buses there's no point of waking up early to do the work our schedule gets ruined and it doesn't feel like we're doing school anymore um I really wanted to do or have some sort of live classes and yes my teachers did do a little bit of that um I know that one of my teachers definitely did and but that was like from the afternoon and so I didn't think it was as effective as normal classes where you would wake up around 7 have like 30 minutes of hanging out with your friends and then have classes start again um about 10 minutes later and I was also kind of curious why that never
049happened because it's just Zoom or a Google Classroom meeting that we would just rotate through every single day and the teachers would rotate through every single day that way we could still have all of our teachers um still teaching us and we wouldn't have had to lay off any of them either as I heard happened um I also learned about how ignorant I was about what was going on in this District because I actually didn't know that many were teachers were laid off until a few days ago or yeah so I look forward for further meetings and the rest of the school year thank you thank you so much I know Katherine's having some connectivity issues um Katherine are you on right now I think I saw that she left the meeting yeah she's been
050on and off but I want to make sure she has her time if she wants it give her another few seconds and then when um it looks like she's on but she's on mute she's back on she says one second Catherine whenever you have time can you see me I can see you I'm so sorry my computer is like going on and off and everything's just like not working I couldn't hear you guys for a while so don't worry can you guys hear me now I got you loud and clear okay thank you um hi I just want to introduce myself I'm Kate I'm a senior I live in Paxton well I'm going to be a senior I'm just really excited for this opportunity and I'm hopeful for what the year to um is going
051to be like um just a little B bit about me I'm in NHS um I'm an active member of student council I'm also on the golf team um I'm in science seminar as well and a bunch of other science clubs um I think just like the only basic thing with the student body is we're awaiting our schedules for next year and we're just like eagerly awaiting what the school year is going to look like but besides that there's not really much going on and we're just excited to see what the year's going to look like awesome thanks so much it's so nice to meet you um super M superintendent McCall when you're ready I guess no more mistakes tonight I promise I'm not gonna not going to hold you to that kichi and Katherine um
052welcome thank you so much for uh sharing some of your insights and we really look forward to hearing how everything's going um from your Vantage Point as we kind of go through this together so um you know one of the things that we're uh you know I wanted to start talking about was exactly what kimichi and Katherine started to talk about was you know what might the fall look like so the commissioner did put out some recommendations La early or at the end of the week last week I had another conference call with him this afternoon with other superintendents and um what they're asking superintendant to do school districts to do is really come back um to them with a plan that has uh three different ways in which we could possibly return to school
053um one would be going back to school full bore everyone's there with PPE um just like we we had prior to covid uh the other one would be a hybrid model where maybe it would be a week on a week off where half the school would be in for a week at a time and the other half would come in the following week um that's one example and the commissioner has used the week on week off example many times so typically when he saids something several times it's something that they're leaning toward uh and then the final one is really remote learning um you know similar to the way we did it uh this this spring the issue would be us developing a much better plan of action for how to deal with this because
054we everyone was kind of caught in the same type of situation in terms of having this just come out of nowhere and then um not being able to really plan it out the way that school districts typically plan things out which typically takes years so um one of the things that we've done as a school district is um we've pulled together our task force and I've asked uh director Keenan to talk a little bit tonight if you don't mind about the advisory task force because they did um meet several times uh individual groups as well as uh the the whole group and um I did want to give them the opportunity to just talk about where they are with the process the great thing about what they did was that it's aligned nicely with what
055the commissioner put out last week uh there will be more guidance around some other things that are going to be coming up in the next couple of weeks um and you know again the big push for us right now is really looking at how we could maneuver some of these different types of situations maneuver through them in terms of social spacing social distancing um our you know transportation to and from school uh how we might end up looking at a learning platform outside of school if there is a if there is an online component that has to occur so all of those things um are also under consideration but uh director Keenan could you talk a little bit about um the the advisory committee absolutely um and thanks for giving me the opportunity uh just
056briefly uh to give people an idea of who was on the task force we had a really a great stakeholder group of about 34 people that represented different uh Community groups and also um parents so we had central office administration School administration faculty and staff from the district parents and students medical professionals uh we had some medical professionals and doctors who were also um parents in the district Mental Health professionals uh from ums medical as well as our own counselors and psychologists school committee members and very importantly School nurses from the district and um we met in the month of June uh virtually obviously and uh they were tasked with and what we organized were uh coming up with contingency plans similar to what the superintendent just discussed related to health and medical mental health
057and academics and then looking at some smaller domains such as is having a a communication plan uh stakeholder input which developed the survey that went out that we had over 6,000 responses to Food Services routines and procedures transportation and Technology uh we did this before the Department of Education guidance came out and I was actually very encouraged to see that um we were definitely on the right track because in many ways what we were doing mirrors what's coming out uh from the Department uh so we do have a you a lot more work to do but we do have a good jump start on what we need to do thanks to the hard work of the the group um we just wrapped up the first phase of this task force which the the major goal
058was to come up with a uh a guiding document of recommendations that are going to be submitted to central office administration and those recommendations fall under the domains I just mentioned and you know I have to say these groups uh the small groups that worked together really uh helped us to look around the corner and to anticipate things that would have been difficult for us to do in isolation I would say impossible for us to do just the the variety of perspectives and you know the students are a big highlight tonight our students on the committee were a huge highlight just their ability to um to really bring the student voice into it so um the superintendent has said uh that he would like this task force to U still uh exists during the summer
059and the next school year to help us guide our plans and that will only help us because uh you know we're going to need a lot of stakeholder input to really gauge how we're doing um in however the fall looks so that's the uh the elevator talk on the the task force but um you know really impressed with the work of everyone coming together and and appreciate people giving up their free time to do so thank you Brendan um and again uh you know the uh recommendations associated with the the opening of schools reopening of schools in the fall uh really did tie nicely back in with um all of the presentations that I um had the opportunity to hear the you know at those meetings um that were very well attended also um you
060know again things that have come out and again this is something that I've been other superintendents and I have been uh talking a little bit about this the guidance around 6 feet versus 3 feet you might have heard about that Massachusetts is kind of at the Forefront of that um they're looking at really the social distancing associated with with kids is a little different um than it is for um young adults and adults and um you know right now they're they're looking at really ramping up the support for this through the medical field and um again we're very fortunate that we live in a in a the state that probably has the most highly respected um Professionals in the medical field in in the world um so uh you know one of the things that
061we're looking at we're looking at that the state's looking at is a 3- foot rule and that's basically a seat to seat rule it's not desk to desk so optimally we'd still love to have six feet but if we can't we could go all the way to three feet which is you know the end of one seat to the beginning of another seat so there would be a three feet spacing they've also asked us to put a plan of action together ass assciated with spacing all of your desks in classrooms so actually putting them out there taking all of the you know extraneous materials or um I'm sorry bookshelves extra items that are in classrooms really removing them taking them out for the year and only basically having desks in there because we could be
062in a situation where we're trying to fit 25 kids into a classroom and not all classrooms are rectangular or Square um as know in some of our buildings so it would really take quite a bit of effort on our part to to pull all that together and that's something we're working on over the next couple of weeks um so it's really managing that part of it right now in terms of how we're looking at um you know what we're doing but you know I I have to commend brandan and his group for pulling so much information together I mean there is a huge amount of information and it's absolutely fantastic the survey that went out Brendan's uh analyzing that information he's incorporating that into uh the final report so so uh once that is um
063fully completed we'll we'll be sharing it back with with the committee and um thank you to this the committee members who also had the opportunity to sit on on that uh task force that was it was helpful to have so many different voices to be heard as we kind of move through this um couple other uh items that we have to you know again address as we we move forward there will be um some more conversation around technology um you we want to ensure that we have the opportunity to get Chromebooks into kids hands in the fall because again one of our three options is remote well two out of three you know they're going to be doing some type of remote learning in some form or fashion either all the time or half the
064time so U you know Barry Barry scar myself Bob bero we've been talking about how we can best kind of support students um moving forward there is talk at the state level of their purchasing you know the state actually purchasing a a better platform associated with um learning and some of it is going to be self-directed learning that school districts could conceivably buy into um that's it's an idea that's getting floated around there out there right now but not definitive yet so again what we're trying to do is just plan out um as best we can we told you that we have allowed students to hold on to the Chromebooks for the summer um as we kind of move forward that way they're just going right into the next year with Chromebooks and you know
065we're looking at how we can also better adjust um you know what we're doing with kids that you know they don't have as much access to technology at home um and how we kind of deal with that moving into the fall so it's kind of everything in a nutshell but we have many other things that we're going to be talking about afterward um superintendent I think you also mentioned in your report that director Smith wanted to give a a update on EX in school year thank you so uh yeah so we' had a um Christine Smith has been working on extended school year for quite some time and it has taken an awful lot of time out of what she's been working on moving forward we do know that there's going to be some definitive
066guidance on extended school year that's what commissioner Riley told me today and that's going to be coming out believe you know later this week so later this week is probably going to be Wednesday or Thursday so Chris do you want to talk a little bit about extended school year sure thank you Daryl um so first I just wanted to take a minute to thank my special education teachers and staff for the amazing um leaning in that they did during the covid closure um they were active supporting special education students and gened students we had some really Innovative things happening at the high school where um lots of kids could get help they didn't need to just be special education students um we had um pair of professionals meeting live with students live meeting over the
067internet over Google um to support students who needed additional support being organized and um and then just the ongoing teaching that happened so I was really really impressed with our staff um and wanted to commend those efforts and the amazing learning that they all undertook for themselves as adults to get up to speed to be able to teach in this whole new way um it really was remarkable um I wanted to share that the um SOA deadline has been extended to August and so we still don't yet have a definitive um plan on what that's going to look like for our district um but again for esy I want to let you know that we have projected at this point 279 students will be participating remotely with 103 staff people Michael Pratt will be the
068summer administrator for the all of the TLC programs and for 9th grade through 12 12 grade uh post through postgrad Trish O'Donnell will be the summer administrator for kindergarten through 8th um so I I wanted to update you a bit on the process of what has happened for esy so esy planning really begins in October for the following year um and as we met as directors with the state director Russell Johnson throughout the closure we were told repeatedly to plan for ES y to be remote um it takes many many months to plan esy um but with that guidance we went ahead and developed postings and got information out to our staff um that we were going to be and that we were going to be going remote I shared that information with parents through
069that development and said um this is the plan what as we know right now this could change as Daryl has just said um we could be getting more guidance even this week although sped directors are not meeting with Russell Johnson until um the following week um so pieces pieces keep dribbling out and we are trying so hard to stay on top of what is coming out um so in June the very beginning of June um June 3 uh I think it was um actually June 7th uh desie released guidance saying that we should be working from the point of view of starting remote but moving into live P inperson instruction um as soon as possible for students that we would consider to be um most needy or um they use the term um of high
070needs high priority um and that is somewhat subject that definition of high needs or high priority but we would consider that in the field to be a student who has not been able to access remote learning learning who has um been without Services really for the duration of the closure and as you can imagine most of our students or quite a few of our students who would participate or be eligible for extended school year are in fact those very students that are our highest priority students so we are in um a bit of a of a moment right because we are we have been focused on remote learning and now we shifted our gears at the beginning of July to consider what that would look like bringing our highest priority but in some ways our
071most fragile students into our school buildings as our very first students back into school with our staff um so that's a lot to take on and as I wrote in my letter that went out to special education parents um each layer of those decisions is so multifaceted and involves so many different um voices that need to contribute to the thinking and the planning and the development that needs to um proceed before we bring children into our buildings so that's the place where we are right now and I have to say that for some of my families that may have felt like um we're a little being a little slow I want to I want to offer that I'm not trying to be slow I'm trying to be diligent I'm trying to be um protective of
072your children and of our of our Collective community and at the same time move forward with the guidance that the state has given us additionally um I have to say that our teachers um needed a little moment of time off so many of our teachers who work with our most fragile or most needy children are in fact parents young young children themselves and they've been doing this amazing juggling throughout the course of the closure um and then we just ended school on the 12th now today is just the 30th and for our I'll speak specifically of our ABA teachers they work year round and this is their first break from school um so I I wanted to ensure that I have their voice at the table when we are engaging the task force and developing
073the procedures and having the think tank that we need around us um to develop those procedures um so there was the possib ility of one um task force meeting that I did cancel we are scheduled to meet um on Thursday at 9:30 I think again that will be in advance of some more information that I would wish would be um coming out more quickly from the state but we will meet um on the on July 2nd um additionally I did want to say that um PPE has been ordered and is in fact coming in um which is exciting to see I know that desie also released some training videos on um how to use the PPE and how to properly Dawn and off the PPE which is important um we will be developing procedures around
074cleaning Transportation um reg developing um ideas around um how do we bring students into the school building how do we um who are those students that we should be looking at first coming into the building obviously all parents are at um choice about whether or not they how they decide to engage in um The Next Step so what we predict is going to happen at this point is that um once our teachers are engaged for summer um for summer summer session we will have them begin to meet with electronically meet with and gather information from parents to determine um what schedules could possibly work to bring their students into school for selected services and and opportunities to be in session so um those are sort of baby steps towards where we obviously we would hope
075to have all of the kids in the building but we need to proceed care carefully and judiciously um for everyone involved um I think that's all I have to update at this point great thank you Christine I I appreciate that and then um again uh just to wrap back around um someone had earlier mentioned the the fact that we had uh our four towns um four of the five towns already passed a budget which was which was huge so I do want to thank the W they did a great job um enlisting folks to show up um at the meeting to not only kind of just show hey you know support support our schools support our kids um but also you know there as residents because we have a lot of people who work for
076the district who live in our five communities um and I can tell you because I've been going to town meetings now for 21 years uh in this area you know most here in Rutland but that wasn't always the case so um I I attribute that to I think the connection that Heidi and group has made um I it it has been very helpful and I can tell you um our town meeting in Rutland um and this is from my own experience having gone to so many was probably the you know even though we were in cars and it felt like we were in a theater um it was a um it was a wonderful experience and it was probably the most supported U budget for wus ever but by far so um I just wanted
077to thank also all of you um for you know taking that step so the good thing is um we're able to move forward with this the town side of the budget um you know the challenging part is and and we all know this is that we're we're still waiting to hear where we're going to be with this with the state funding the state's still waiting to hear where they're going to be um from federal funding so thank you thank you superintendent I think we would be a Miss if we did not quickly recognize the uh wind beneath our wings um recipients as well as the the foreign language um Award winners as well so kudos to everybody um for new members um in this weird but seemingly effective online Forum um typically after the superintendent
078gives his remarks um we give members an opportunity to have approximately like a twom minute um window to offer their questions or comments on the superintendent remarks um and we typically go in alphabetic order but since we have a number of new members at the top of the alphabet um the chair is actually going to start at the bottom of the alphabet and work up um so everybody can kind of see how this works and you're not put on the spot in the first um 30 seconds and yes typically um the business and finance committee um most of our subcommittees um will be formed after this meeting um but business and finance has been hard at work with all our budget AR constraints at this moment um Vice chair Dennis is also the chair of
079business and finance um so um Mike are you comfortable going first again or do you want to wait until subcommittee um time is up to you no I think if if you if if you'd like for me to speak I would speak to you about the business and finance basically we're taking the business and finance subcommittee report out of order for the purpose of discussion in the superintendent if if that's okay with you you are you are break done um you know the last several meetings based on to go on with the business finance subcommittee report if uh if that's appropriate and you can hear me um that is appropriate I am having a little trouble hearing you um but we're kind of getting you in waves well I'll do my best um so um
080you know very quickly um as superintendent mentioned a budget was passed uh by four out of four towns uh Paxton was is scheduled to vote uh at the end of the summer um but I really think that it's a it's a testament um to our communities that have come forward and support the budget in in the way that they did I think they understand the import um and the impact that the district is is feeling and and what that means for for our students and and staff I'd also be remiss you know one of the most uh comprehensive and cach summaries that I've seen from one of our community leaders was from Sheila dib in in Rutland and uh I I thought that um her her sentiments and insight on the reasons to uh consider
081and pass this budget was was right on point the uh business of finance committee met last on June 17th um there are a number of issues that we've discussed several of them are in the form of motions on today's um uh agenda um the uh discussion around Transportation settlement and whether or not um it would be appropriate to access excess and deficiency at this time and what amount um are both on the uh agenda in the form of motions and I'll defer any comment on those uh until we come to that part of the agenda uh we did have discussion on um as we're starting to wind towards the closing uh fiscal year budget um one other piece of good news that that emerged in our last meeting was that um as we were tracking
082um a a number of revolving funds that we were looking to be able to bring forward from 2020 to 2021 um through um funds that were unexpended um the administration was able to identify an additional I believe it's $300,000 um above uh what was originally planned and is not uh listed as far as I understand in the tier reduction sheet um so that was certainly contingency planning for fiscal year 20 um again again related to the five tiers of of cuts that this committee has discussed in the past um the committee has um continued to ask uh for a u timeline uh of action over the course of this summer um we asked again uh at our last business and finance meeting it's probably the the third time uh or more that we've asked we
083were told that we would that tonight um have not yet um what are the um what was our what our staffing level need to again we don't we know that we don't have um where um and then finally there are motions for Budget transfers and it was the recommendation of the committee that those budget transfers uh be accepted by the full committee that's all I have thank you member Dennis I think um a few of us had a hard time hearing some of what you had to say um would you mind putting some of your pertinent comments in the chat um or maybe if we can cycle back to you um without the video on um can we can you try speaking now Mike sure um Mike's Audio Cuts in out for me um all
084right do you mind starting mind stting from the top because I can hear you much better now I don't want anybody yeah sometimes the video takes a hand with um so um I I don't know if you've missed all of that did the budget passed it was a was a um sentiment to uh the community to come out in such full support um I mentioned Sheila dib as someone who offered a very comprehensive and cogent uh set of reasons for uh people to consider passing the budget um and I thought that that was well done um we had subsi of discussion on a number of topics uh some of them are on the committee agenda uh for discussion in the form of motions such as the transportation settlement um and whether or not it's appropriate
085to access um e excess and deficiency and at what level um we did have some discussion on fiscal year uh 2020 budget um uh a bit of good news that I've mentioned is that um we've come to understand that uh the administration was able to recognize an additional $300,000 in unspeeded unexpended funds funds above and beyond what they were targeting uh for rollover from 20120 to 2021 that's not accounted for as far as I understand as part of the tier reduction plan as it was last presented to us um so that's good news in terms of contingency planning for fiscal 2021 um the uh committee has asked for probably for the third time um a timeline against which key decisions uh need to be made for this summer and we were told that we would
086uh look to see that today um haven't seen it in the materials as yet um however it's critically important for this committee to understand um and and for people in the community to understand quite frankly what are those points in time where decisions need to be made such as at some point in time um we need to um settle in on Staffing size we need to understand and be able to make classes um we know that there's some unknowns in terms of uh what State dat is going to bring whether or not there'll be a federal uh bailout but we can be able to put together a timeline for the last possible date that and fill in the blank we need to be able to make classes we need to know what our staffing levels
087are going to be and and uh you know I I hope that that's something that the Administration has but it's something that I think needs to be shared uh with this committee uh finally uh there are budget transfers that are um on on the agenda as well um the uh subcommittee uh recommend voted to recommend that the full school committee adopt those transfers again many of these are in the spirit of being able to redirect funds for the purposes of adding them to the revolving account uh so that we can carry those forward funds forward from 2020 to 2021 and leverage them next year please ask me to do it a third time no you want it to be memorable so well that was much by putting we're gonna have a good time by sh
088Denis um so with that um we're gonna start with member young member young do you have any comments to add to the superintendence report or questions no not at this time thanks all right thank you um member Woodland hi um uh and I wanted to say thank you chair weeks for starting at the end of alphabet as a w tow I um I just want to uh reiterate the question uh in the point that uh Vice chair Dennis made about the timeline of triggers um but also just when could we get an idea of what we need staff-wise to carry out the guidelines as we as they've been presented so far I know there's so much in the works in the air things can change as we see with um extended school year things can
089change so quickly um but to have that on our plate would make it very e uh would make it easier to talk with our community who have a lot of questions about the layoffs what the layoffs are so far what they are to be in the future the tear there are so many questions on that um so looking at what as as you had looked at with the Staffing Plan before when things were normal um to see what we would need under these new circumstances to adequately uh open up our doors uh that kind of plan I I I would really like to see sooner rather than later I think that the everybody would um so I want to make sure that's said and then also to the point about the tiers um a lot
090of questions have been coming across um about the priorities as uh Sterling resident Bridget had mentioned had submitted uh in her email about the sports about there have been questions about music so a rationale of where those programmatic decisions are getting made um I think really need to be presented uh to this committee and I would appreciate that um and with that that's it thank you sure Linda so those are those are good questions um you know I think one of the things is we're kind of looking at this working in this collectively um behind the scenes um you're exactly right which is this is things are changing from day to day so it is this is probably one of the more challenging well not the more the most challenging uh time that I've ever
091experienced in terms of being an educator over 30 years because every there's no constant right now nothing has been defined yet so we're kind of in that process of okay okay we do have to project out and I I um you know co-chair Dennis I understand you we did talk about trying to get something out to you by the 30th and that was my goal um but as we ended up getting a we have a budget passed so I wasn't necessarily anticipating that happening as quickly as it did which is fantastic but it happened so that helps us kind of assess where we need to be financially a little better so it gives us the opportunity to say okay here's where we're going to start July one this is how it's going to work out
092um director Dee has been working behind the scenes on doing you know 500 other things as you know member Dennis mentioned you closing out fy20 starting fy21 and we're also looking at how we kind of plan this out the other part of this that makes it a little more challenging is how you know it's the three- tier plan or or or associated with being in front of kids all day um having half the kids in front of you um the space is associated with where it might be are kids allowed to eat in the cafeteria um you know I talked to Bill bendo we basically have to it's that first week of August we're gonna spend the month of July literally pulling all of this together because it's it's literally going to take that long
093to Define what we need to do I wish we had answers to like the questions because I get them all the time as well I'm getting a lot of emails every day from parents who saying hey do kids under five have to wear a mask hey hey do uh you know what's going to happen on the bus how how is a van going to work picking up more than two or three kids so all of those questions are still being for you know they're being responded to um at the state level and we're trying to do our best to do it which is why you know Brendan and his task force we we're really asking them to look at that as best they can I'm still once we get the information from Brendan's um task
094force and we can go through it and call through that that allows us to look a little better at where we might be we do have some drop dead dates that we want to follow but we're also I think in a little better situation in terms of having that budget pass because we're now that much farther ahead than than where we would have been if we had just said no we don't even have a budget um we're still we're still going to be cautious and careful moving forward but we have to you know knowing that we're we have four of our towns that have passed um you know fy21 it makes it it it allows us to think about okay how might we plan this out and in terms of the Staffing if we're if
095we only have to hit tier one you know we we don't even touch staff if we have tier one and some of tier two um you know maybe that's you know partial you know just a a few people we're and again the reason why we had to hit all five tiers was because of that June 15th deadline so that's that's it in a in a nutshell um if I may just to follow up um my question is a little bit different different than that um my question is more about uh not the budget side but the what it will take to carry it out because we these are uh at the moment guidelines but they are going to be have to there they are going to be something that we had to follow um and
096so just as we had asked in an Ideal World how would it work for a staffing plan uh before covid I'm asking if there's an in in an ideal world where we have the funding what would it take to actually do all of these pieces um and then also to what you did um uh explain was about the uh taking the month of July having that kind of a timeline of when you expect the task force to present to you and those next sets of uh of expected deadlines or um markers would be really helpful for us to have and I would appreciate uh if that can be distributed to the committee um or uh I don't know if I have to make a formal request for that so and again give us a little
097bit of time um during the next week to pull this together because again I want to Ure that whatever I put out there it it aligns with what we're actually able to do as best we can I don't want to just put something out there and go okay we're hopefully going to be here um that's what the state's doing an awful lot of the time and it's really really frust tring so we're looking at this and trying to be as cautious and careful about um how we kind of plan this out but we'll we'll pull something together um starting you know we're we're already working on it um but we'll we'll try to have something out to you by the end of next week member long B I see your hand raised is it a
098process question because otherwise I just want to give everybody a chance um to speak no no it was not a processed question all right do you mind we get to you a little bit okay hold that thought okay uh member Williamson nothing at this time thank you okay the chair is going to yield her time member Smith we can't hear you me sorry thank you I forgot I was on mute um good evening everyone so I know we have this guidance from the initial fall School reopening guidance and just because we have this guidance doesn't mean it really gives us a blueprint as Dr McCall um just said for our reopening it's essentially a skeletal document the first seven pages if you read it seven or eight pages of philosophy um about let's get the
099kids back in school and that's what I see throughout the document um even though there is there's verbiage given to we want to get kids into school and have it be safe I'm not sure that's what the document is actually doing um I'm concerned about the versus 6 um I attended the board of Elementary and secondary Education meeting this afternoon whoa those are really long just about as long as our meetings and um they were talking about the three versus six and the the Dr Nelson that we s you may have seen on TV last week and um Dr fiser were saying oh it's fine three feet I think about my own classroom that's about what it is now so when I think about that I think hm this might be part of a let's
100get all the kids we can back into the schools so I don't really if I have to stay six feet away from people in the grocery store and there's plexy glass and I step back why all of a sudden a classroom is three feet okay just because the guidance says it doesn't mean we do it um the question about the cafeteria and lunches so in the document right now the initial guidance is that kids will not really be in that cafeteria space because they suggest that you would use that for overflow for classroom space which means kids will eat in classrooms I'm concerned about that because of food allergies so we have kids who are in 504s who have food accommodations for food allergies lots of planning has to go into how that's going to
101work um and then also the whole thing about how do you take your mask off to eat who cleans the desks what's the point so lots of problems there I know Daryl's like yep I know I know the things that just wonder what's up with you Dee for suggesting all these things um I just have to go on record saying them because they I just get so confused when I'm I know what I I think I know something and then I have all this stuff and I'm listening to all these meetings and just wondering what is going on so I did hear speaking of that I did hear director Keenan give an update um on the advisory committee and its work but I don't feel I know what that work has been yet and I
102think that's what member Woodland was suggesting like we need a timeline we need to know what the steps are I understand that we don't know what the steps should be it sounds like but we need to figure that out because the department of educ deese isn't giving it to us so we need to figure that out we're the ones that are in charge and ultimately have to answer for the safety of the kids in our school buildings and the staff like all of the staff that go there the stuff in this initial it's just mine's all highlighted and earmarked here in this initial fall reopening if you haven't read it please read it um saying that it's all about health and safety I don't know if it is really um I'm sure you guys have
103seen people commenting on the the research that they've put there um couple more things one of the other big items the guidance recommends is that students stay in cohorts while this works in an elementary school I can see doing this it's kind of how they are now um in elementary schools middle schools we can make it work they're in teams um in some of the schools not all you know Mount View had um done away with some of their teams but they know how to do that the high school 2100 kids totally different ball game with how we can put kids in cohorts the cohorts are there so we can minimize movement kids are not going to they should not be walking around the halls freely so how is that going to happen um in
104a large school and even our elementary schools are large with four to 500 kids in some of the schools that's um uh very large um let's see oh so today at that meeting another one besides the meeting handwashing how does that happen again Elementary model teachers take their classes to the bathroom how are we going to do that in the high school and the middle school all of the points during the day so those are things we have to figure out I know um the board of Elementary and secondary education today they put in some places about the about student learning regulations and you can find those online and they've they've made some adjustments which will be which are put into place right now and then will be voted on um for formal adoption in
105September seber but one of the things that they did is they've put some items in some requirements for attendance for remote learning remote or hybrid so attendance grades regular communication with parents and Guardians translation interpretation um services so those are things we can be working on right now and that remote plan that we need to do so there's so much to do I don't know how we're going to get it done um there's not a lot of time I don't even darl I know you said you need a week I think like we got to stay up for the next few nights like just figure out how to get all of this done I'm getting a plan together because all of a sudden like today tomorrow's July 1st we've got a holiday in there and
106then all of a sudden it's July I think July 6th on Monday July 6th on Monday School supposedly coming back into session um I don't know are we August thir you know August uh 31st or September 1st or somewhere in there um or was it later I don't know and Al gon when we're starting the 31st I think so just thinking about that there's so much to do there I just I just don't know I'm frustrated I'm sure all of you are I'm also this weighs on me daily thinking about the fact the Department of Education has issued this guidance I don't want our children to be in danger I don't want our faculty and staff to be in danger and we just need to give a lot of thought to what we're doing I'm
107in support of what member Woodland asked which is a timeline of like major markers and I need more than the advisory committee met and they had lots of perspectives like I want to know what did you do in that meeting um and and maybe those meetings that they are if it's a task force like maybe they should be public meetings where people can listen so people are informed um anyway I'm done thank you thank you member Smith um member Silva I think all my comments that I would have said have already been made so I'm I'm going to pass okay thank you um membership hero um yeah I'm all set with comments for this time thank you okay thank you um member atmer thank you um just one thing kind of to add certainly we've
108all kind of had our different reactions to uh this guidance from the state in terms of kind of the three different scenarios that we kind of need to plan out for um certainly I I would hope that and one of the things I'd asked at least to be kind of chasing down is kind of some of the information from the survey that was sent out regarding specifically tying into this idea of there needing to be a vaccine in place before parents will send their kids back and and in part because like for as an example I will say that for us for my family based on our assessment of risk to us to and all that that our children will not go to school in a physical building until there's a vaccine and we're probably
109not the only family in the district that's like that and so that's an that's kind of an important piece of information kind of districtwide what that looks like because that does influence especially for option one everyone back or even option to hybrid because if if it's 30% then that's a significant chunk of students that no matter what they're not going to be physically in the building and so that it's it's important data to have so again I I know I'm pretty certain we're not the only ones if if we are then my question kind of solves itself um and then the other thing just to uh I mean when we're trying to look at this and again we' we've those other committee members have alluded to the kind of the scope of this problem um
110let's I would I would just offer up that we don't have to necessarily um constrain ourselves to the schedule that we've already published I mean we not the best of options but it could be an option to revisit relook at our schedule in terms of starting the school year a little bit later um we could start it really later like in January and have everyone go six days a week um maybe have vaccine by then which would be a really dramatic example but um I would hope at least that would as we're trying to fit all of these round pieces into the square pegs that we for the puzzle set that we have that we at least keep other options in the back of our mind that maybe that maybe it's something that would help
111us out as we're trying to plan through it so um again just just something that kind of really two things that hopefully are in the administration is kind of incorporating as part of their plannings and things that one regarding number of students who will not be back regardless of until there's a vaccine what it looks like and then also um whether or not changing when we open the school year changing our school calender could make sense could be something that could be helpful um it might be something to take a look at it and it doesn't it it' be more pain than it's worth and that happens plenty of times as well but um at least would want that to be out there kind of at least an idea that could be tossed around and
112if it's a bad one then good Ritt but thank you and and just to just to add um you know the commissioner has been asked by several superintendent um to look at the calendar year uh so you know right now students have to attend school 180 days so we're asking him to allow us to at least have two to three more days so students would go to school maybe 176 days 177 days so that we we had more time with teachers toward the beginning of the year in order to ensure that all the safety measures and protocols and everything that has to be taken into account you know we have time to do that most schools you know they start school um a day you know teachers come in a day or two beforehand officially
113and we have everything under the sun that we're already trying to go through with them I can't imagine trying to do that and all the safety protocols that we have to have in place well beforehand so um that's something that we're pushing on the commissioner for right now and I believe he has some flexibility with that as well thank you thank you guys um member Mitchell are you still with us believe member Mitchell has left the meeting um secretary can you check that for me I believe he has I've not heard that he has but I will check with him okay um we'll go back if he pops back on U member Mills thank you so I'll be brief because I know we have a lot to get through uh some things I like to
114see on our next meeting maybe the chair or the superintendent can have more details about uh one the Furlow agreement we voted on was based on a budget and that contingency is no longer there and now that thing we voted on is no longer valid so we need to go back to re-evaluate whether um we need to renegotiate that um that that Mo MOA um secondly I fully support the two resolutions from masc that were put mentioned in the superintendence report I encourage uh the committee to consider bringing them forward as agenda items at our next meeting many school committees across the Commonwealth have already done so um third the SOA um I hope that we have that as an agenda item even though it's August as you just said August isn't that far away
115we can at least be getting Community input even if the budget doesn't work out um that it is funded we we should still be at least doing that that work um fourth uh the reopening commit the the contingency committee I do want to Echo member Smith's comments about if that's or whoever said it I'm sorry Christina if it wasn't you if this is a public meeting we should be posting the meetings and they should be public and there should be minutes um if it indeed is is a public body and finally um public hearing I keep I'm the one who gets emails and I'm forwarding them to you uh for today only we already have three more so we want to make sure we give ourselves time at the end to to do that thanks
116thank you member Mills uh member long B we're finally to you okay so um well I want to Echo uh member Woodland and member Smith's uh statements I thought they were very very persuasive and also in response to member otm Mar's comment about um families who are concerned about their children returning to school before there's a vaccine it's my understanding that there's an that the state has an online uh online school that's Statewide and um my understanding is also that it's pretty it's getting pretty full um and I wondered if there's any discussion if that school does exist if I understood that correctly if there's any discussion at the state level of uh expanding the capacity of that that school to accommodate families um who are worried about sending their kids in superintendent do you
117have any clarification on that you're muted Daryl Daryl I can tell you that I did hear today that they are full um Greenfield Ana are full yeah Tekk are also full so I think I would suggest that perhaps as a committee or perhaps the administration should reach out to desie and um advocate for expanding the capacity of that schools of those schools um so that those families who who are reluctant to send their kids in uh without a vaccine um have that as an option and it might it might be better for those families and it might also um help help to it might help to uh address some of our resource needs um as a school system until until things are back to some semblance of normal yeah and Linda just to add to
118that so I spoke a little earlier about the online learning platform that the commissioner alluded to today that he's looking um to pull together at the state level that districts could buy into for okay so that actually might might help out with you know that question okay thank you so much um member Lavoy thank you welcome as chair um a couple of things I think I I think member Woodland had had brought up a very valid um point and it was followed up by member Smith but I want to stress a couple of things that member otar had mentioned um that survey that was conducted I think we heard 6,000 or so respondents and it would be really nice to see see those results and to his point of of response is if there were
11910% of people that said they wouldn't come back with a vaccine that's 600 responses and that's a considerable amount when we think of of who our audience is I also want to touch upon the size of that task force um I think in Pre prior meetings member Dennis if I if I'm not mistaken had brought up that we have to be agile and we have to think you have to put in a plan that can move quick and I think when there's 30 something um Cooks in the kitchen that becomes a little more difficult to to maneuver so I would I would strongly recommend the administration take a a leadership role in asking the task force for specific initiatives that are on on its plate in terms of whether that be Staffing whether that be
120safety whether that be hygiene and protocols on that I think it's up to administ ation to provide leadership as opposed to waiting for the output of that that meeting in addition to that we're talking about financial um due diligence and I know this has been asked in the past I think member mitchelli who was no longer on the committee asked this at the last meeting um direction from Administration um perhaps in looking at what the impact and the loss of teachers is to to their own um jobs to their own responsibilities to that burden that ends up elevating upwards and perhaps looking at pay freeze is something starting at the top you mentioned about the large support from the communities there were more people at the Rutland town meeting that were at any meeting over
121300 and I think almost 350 people you had an overwhelming amount of support a lot of those individuals have been impacted financially by covid they supported this budget and I think it's our responsibility as the committee to make tough decisions to not be afraid to hold the administration accountable to to take some responsibility to perhaps um put some of of um the higher level salaries back into the deliverables for for the community which are teachers and the the end students and I advocate I advocate very strongly for that to take a leadership position from the top furthermore I advocate for administration to develop relationships with the community members um we're talking about cuts to Athletics and arts and those types of things that are pertinent for kids especially in middle school where there are a
122lot of outside pressures and before you talk about cutting any of those reach out to the community look for sponsorship look for boosters maintain those programs as opposed to the cut and I think it's our responsibility as a community to push Administration to think out of the box this is not about what the towns are funding what the states are funding it's what we as a community can do to preserve our most important asset which is the education of this community and it's up to us to to Really push that out of the box and I know that's not a comfort level for some people here and it's not a comfort level for a lot of people here that's okay but it's a to us to kind of break those boundaries and figure out ways
123to to make our district whole from an educational experience thank you member Lavoy um member long member long B did you have a follow up on that uh yes um I know that there was an effort to do some private fundraising a while ago um and it for a number of reasons it turned out to be a bit more difficult than people had anticipated but I think that um that given this crisis um that we're all living through uh people may be more willing to um open up their pocketbooks if they if they have anything left in them um people might be more willing to to pitch in and and help the schools and it might it might actually be something that could then carry forward get some momentum and and gain some momentum and
124then carry forward into the future so this might be a good time to to try that strategy so I would agree with member Lavoy on that point that that maybe that's something we should try thank you um member Lavoy did you have anything else I didn't want to cut you off though I'm trying to keep us keep us no I I I think I said what I what I wanted to I appreciate it thank you all right no problem um member Christian bomb hi uh thank you um and uh I just have a couple of things uh I want to Echo What U member Smith had to say about the guidance from the state uh I'm so glad I didn't spend time printing it up because I feel like it would have been an incredible
125waste of paper um you know our primary objective uh should always be teaching and learning for our students and I feel that rushing to get kids into a building that could potentially be unsafe for either students or staff there was nothing in that document that made me think that the the um the value of teachers in the building and their health and safety were of concern um our our focus should be on teaching and learning and not on procedures and pro protocols in the classroom and I feel like it should not be a management scenario every single day for our teachers and a um and you know all we're gonna hear is get your mask on put your mask on wash your hands wash your hands we don't have enough bathrooms in some of the
126in some of the buildings to even facilitate that so um you know I just feel that that having a timeline is it when do we need to make these decisions it's great to have three plans but what do we need for resources we need to be able to identify what those resources are and acquire those resources before we get those teachers and students into the building and um and you know we've already identified that we're going to need masks and face Shields and and PPE and that's already been purchased and that's already coming right that's what we're hearing from um from the administration and that's great but there's a whole host more of resources whether it be uh Personnel Resources uh apps websites Chromebooks those are all resources that are going to need to be
127purchased and ready to go we need to have a Nimble operation we don't have time come September to try to start figuring these things out and um and so I feel um really adamant about that and I One lesson learned from uh from this week's town hall meeting is that just because we are in the know with our uh regulations just because we have done the leg work and we've done the Consulting and we as leadership in in communities have uh gone through all the work and created a plan doesn't mean that the community at large is privy to that plan and um and education for parents to feel comfortable is going to be uh necessary and that's going to take time that's not something we can throw out in an email come September 1st
128and expect that parents are going to be comfortable and ready to send their kids to school on September 2nd so um you know these are all uh questions that I have uh you know what when are we going to have these resources these identified resources when are we going to have a mechanism for education to educate parents that you know yes in fact these are the the scenarios this is what it's going to look like this is how it's done some people are doing uh videos and sending them out to parents and students so that they can become educated on what entrance into the building might be um and I know that we don't have the answers yet but these also have to be part of our endgame is that education piece so that parents
129can feel uh feel like we we know what we're doing and and trust that what we are doing is um is in the best interest and it feels like a threefoot uh marker was a hasty move uh to to to say okay let's get kids in the building because we need to open up our economy and I think that everybody can maybe understand my skepticism uh with with that um given the the climate of uh of how things are um in our national media um so I guess that the my my request is to make sure that we have uh a timeline um and also identified resources and plans for uh for educating the the community and getting them ready for the opening of school whenever that happens to be thank you so much thank
130you um member Sila did you have a quick followup we're we're approaching nine o'clock yeah I just wanted to um kind of a clarifying question I know we are asked to come up with three different plans remote hybrid and in school now does that mean we follow only one of these plans do parents get to choose one of each of these plans is it a combination where you choose one child can do this one child can do that the reason why I'm asking is I know that there's many students who really are looking to go back into school in person but there's plenty of children who really did thrive on this remote learning or will thrive on remote learning in a combination in a hybrid model um is there when I say hybrid model are
131there classes that are specific specifically always going to be remote or are they classes that going to be identified as preferred in person and some in remote so I'm kind of confused of I know we said three different models but what does that mean combination you choose parent gets to choose what's I'm a little confused superintendent do you want to clarify on that so so the way it was explained to us yeah sure the way it was explained uh to superintendent that plan there are three different options so one option is in school everybody's there um with PPE the second option is um one week on one week off that hybrid model and a third option is remote learning um from home so what they're doing is They are promoting all kids in school um
132end of August beginning of September that's that's their goal and that that's been explicitly explained to us now how we as a district decide okay we can do something like this or we're no we we don't have the capacity to do this that's what we're doing now we're we're we're looking at okay what would it look like if we had six you you know a six- foot space in between each kid in a in an Elementary classroom at davis hill or in one of our class I mean the high school is going to be really tough because our High School classrooms are small and we we fit a lot of kids into those those spaces just in general they're smaller than our Elementary classroom so we know we're gonna have to tap into our media
133center our cafeteria probably maybe some other spaces but so does that mean it's a recommendation and we can follow it so therefore we can give a hybrid model to parents I'm I'm just asking like do parents have a say in this go ahead Megan I think I think she just to clarify her question she's more asking do parents get to choose or is it District choosing so for something like that the state has only said the district chooses okay you know go through come up with these three different models and then the district choose which model um fits best there's nothing that says a parent couldn't like I I think someone mentioned couldn't keep um their their children home and do their own homeschooling or do it through a different learning platform or something but
134I hear what you're saying ASA how that might work um and that is something that we've kind of we talked about there was um I think they they the the most challenging part is this you could say okay we're bringing everybody back in and then three weeks into it you're you're going to a remote learning model or I mean that that literally could happen if we see a spike if we see the flu if we see something you know there's a big push the Des is going to push all families to have their children um get flu shots this year they they want them to have flu shots as you know as many as humanly possible because they they want to ensure that okay well we know it's not the flu because they had the
135flu shot so maybe it's covid um all of that you know is kind of coming into play with this but that's why this is uh you again it's this it's the ultimate moving Target um you know in terms of what we're what we're looking at so um maybe that maybe that is something that we could look at if there's a way for us to do a hybrid version of that but I think it would be it would be may it might be teacher dependent it might be course dependent it might be grade level dependent in terms of how that might play out thank you um I think we have a couple clarifying hand raised questions again just try to keep it brief if you can um member Christian bomb I'm so sorry um I will
136be brief um my my other question was how are considerations for time on learning and time for planning being managed uh some of these remote if it's a hybrid model um you know that there are going to be teachers having to both instruct and you know check in work at the same time I just there's a lot to manage there and I just uh would like to see Clarity in how uh the time is as um member artar had mentioned that you know looking at a modified schedule but also looking at a daily modified schedule and maybe it's not uh you know an 8 to3 model maybe we're talking about something different in terms of time in school so um you know that's my that's my followup there thank you member long B quick followup
137Linda are you still with us you're muted Linda sorry yep thank you uh you mentioned the week on week off option um and I initially thought that was a good option for hybrid and and it's and it's fine but on the reopening task force uh folks discussed uh two days in school then a and then um a day when Monday Tuesday in school for half the kids then Wednesday everybody's at home home Thursday Friday the other half of the kids come in so that so that a cohort of kids would be going to school every week you know for at least two days um which seems to me to give kids more continuity in a way U rather than a week off and then a week home um is that still a possibility or has
138that been foreclosed no that's that's still a possibility um there's again this when I said it's because commissioner Riley refers to the week on week off right okay um every single meeting that we have so I I think again I also understand that you know we could look at some different options in terms of having you know half days that's the other that's the other thing that has been thrown out there you know they're in school for half a day and then they go home for the afternoon the other group comes in for the afternoon so there's that opportunity but um I think Laura made a great point the the other issue that we really have to think about is teachers were they'll have kids in front of them and then they're also supposed to
139be monitoring the the at home piece this is going to be a challenge in Nom because of the the the access so it's like the pre- prepping so so imagine you know there's Christina doing her um class at Algonquin and she's you know half of it is in front of her and she's already and she's assigned work to the other half of it it might be a little different at the high school but thee level I don't know that you're breaking up Daryl with the first grader where it's you know where there isn't someone that's kind of starting that are you back with us darl now we can now we can now I can thank you okay okay so in any case um I'll stop right there I think you need our fantastic Princeton internet
140to to keep you going tonight very grateful for it um member Ember I think he is saying that he support all the former comments as well um member Hayes is not with us um member Haber hi um to member Smith and ire and kersi bomb and um as a task force member I want to tell you guys that um all of those concerns that you mentioned have been considered um I'm certainly not saying that all of them have answers um and and all of course uh everything depends on what Dusty puts in place um but I do think that you'll be pleased with the work that's put been put in so far and I recognize that you see the the flying by um but know that it it is being worked on um it does
141include communication plans to parents in the community and I'm hopeful that it's shared with with you all very soon um to member Lavoy comment about um it being such a large group I was very concerned about that in the beginning myself um knowing how it is working with the 21 of you all and um with 35 uh there I was concerned but um Brendan uh set it up into subcommittees and it was all very manageable um uh the groups that that were put together for health and um just all the different aspects um really made sense with people's Specialties um and I was I was pleased to see how that was going um as far as the survey results I think that they were very interesting and again I hope that that gets put to
142you soon um and not so much about vaccines but about masks and um anyway so it it's all coming together and I know it's so hard without seeing it and that's why I was so glad to be a member of this task force um like I said I'm I'm looking forward to you seeing that sooner rather than later that's all thank you so much that was a great update um member gusterson okay if you can't hear me raise your hand because I'm on my phone too and I can switch so no it's if it goes out it my internet does go out a lot we gotcha um so some of my comments have already been reflected um I would Echo the question about the timeline I can tell you we've been asking for additional details
143about all aspects of this since at least April um when we requested a line item breakdown of where the cuts would impact the budget and how to pass that and that was in April um early April actually um and it's in the minutes if anyone would like to look it up a business and finance so um there's been multiple requests for information so I do hope going forward that we can get the timeline we can possibly once committees are figured out again have a meeting we were maybe going to meet last week but then didn't um just to make sure everyone's up to speed um on that regard I would also like to add in addition to a timeline that perhaps um we've been asking in the past also for a a plan of restoring
144the cuts as more funds are found such as the $300,000 that showed up at the last meeting um and the fact that we now have a budget which is several million dollars that wasn't reflected in those tiers so I would really like to see a plan of restoration not just well it'll start from the bottom and move up because I think we need to have some sense of that um because the tier four and five cuts would not have happened had we not had the the um the deadline and I think we need to be and then we wouldn't reh having the discussions we're having about music education and other things I think we need to be very clear about what our priorities are to restore positions and what will be restored now that we're
145finding some pockets of money that did not exist when we created that tier for our worst case um so I would like to request that again as we are finding some funds um I hope that that will be coming to us shortly um I had two other comments I had a question um which I'll get to at the end about our 112 budget request um I don't know if you have an answer for this Daryl but do we still have a 112 budget request with the state I know the state is funding us at a certain level this summer but because our budget passed does that mean that paperwork and request was withdrawn that's a question for for you yes um okay just to clarify so that gives us more flexibility and so we don't
146have it gives more flexibility so that's good um I was disappointed in the report that we didn't have any update following up on the students comments about racial bias even I know there's a lot going on um but I was disappointed that we didn't have an update even saying I'm thinking about this direction I've heard you once the budget is passed then we will address it we might create a committee or a working group we need to work in these areas I was disappointed it wasn't addressed at all so and I did tell you that elsewhere so I won't go into great detail but I do hope that that shows up shortly um even a plan or a thought um and the final thing is that in regards to the cuts as well we information
147is essential we were the last ones in the community to know which positions were cut um we found out through trickling we had requested it through business and finance and through this meeting several times that we get a preliminary list we weren't given that list again going back to April about where these positions might be um and we were caught off guard at least I was when I suddenly started seeing Landmark Landmark articles saying that half the music staff in the district was cut because we weren't told that as a curricular impact of this when we talked about it we were told Middle School strings and language and no other curricular impact so I was completely caught off guard and um I appreciate that we have that information now but would like that information also
148going forward so we're not the last to know what our decisions are um impacting so those are my few notes for now thank you thank you so much someone needs to mute we still have um four more members and haven't spoken at all so I just want to give them some time member Dennis uh thank you uh I have three things um one you know on the point that was just made you know sometimes silence speaks louder than words and I think when we have 13 uh members of the community former students or existing students come out and speak as they did uh at our last meeting um to not have a response um um well whether intended or not um can speak volumes and and I think it's imperative that uh that the administration
149um and if it's not the administration then perhaps this body um makes an appropriate response in some way um second you know again going back to the timeline question um and just to clarify it's a clarification that we've made over and over and over I'm going to make it again um I've heard multiple people here speak to it we are not asking um uh through the chair to the administration we are not asking I don't think for a timeline of decisions and the content of those decisions we're asking a Time line for when decisions need to be made for lack of a better term what is the drop dead date if I look at September 2nd as the first day students appear or hopefully appear uh to go into a building what is the drop
150dead date for creating rosters what is the drop dead date for any kind of curriculum modifications what is the drop dead date for any kind of professional development that's related to those curriculum uh modifications what is the drop dead date for bringing us up to speed on what kind of covid measures need to be put into place that surely is not something that is going to take us weeks and weeks and weeks being able to take that and work backwards is something that we should be able to put forward and put forward to this committee and put forward to the community in a relatively short period of time and this has been mentioned before um we've been asking for that level of detail um again not the content of the decisions but the timeline by
151which certain decisions need to be made the third and my final Point here um and it's been mentioned again uh with respect to the Desi guidance let's be very clear on what this is and what this isn't um this is not a plan this is not a blueprint this is not a Playbook these are guidelines um there is no indication from desie that we're going to receive anything other than guidelines what do you do with guidelines you need to develop a plan to operationalize those guidelines that is the work that is ahead of us and as we've talked about these different models and I think that over the course of the chat uh member uh Smith put something up that that's directly from uh the desie guidance that says we do need uh to provide
152a remote option so whatever model that we're looking at uh it's going to be important that we're in consideration of uh those members of the community who are not going to be able to appear physically and by the way reopening I I would not presume that reopening and appearing physically is a fade complete I think that is a priority I think it's uh something that desie would look for each of the school districts to strive towards but they also list out contextual constraints contextual constraints including um all kinds of things like funding which we don't know the answer to yet um however there is guidance that's out there um that's U put forward through um either either districts who have gone through this process or um leading uh organ organizations that can help frame or
153help a committee frame some of these discussions not to undermine the work that's being done by our committee but again not having visibility into um those discussions and and what's coming forward I do hope that there's somebody that's on the Forefront of understanding what the thought leadership is on these topics and that any tools that are out there um that can help shape and formulate a plan from these guidelines are being leveraged and taking advantage of thank you thank you so much member Brown all here I'm not used to um talking near the end um a lot of good points have been brought up um I do want to echo on the racial bias um I believe we should put that on a future agenda um I think we should have discussion about it um
154I believe this District can do a lot better do have some ideas uh on the legal aspect of it because I've gone to quite a few rallies in the towns and um there's a theme that I noticed that if um there's a complaint it does go to the building principle but it kind of gets brushed under the rug sometimes and so I believe it should go beyond the building principle to human resources and have somebody there handle all the complaints of our district um but we need need to communicate as a committee I believe about this because as member Dennis said we had 13 people um and we all decided that yeah we we recognize we have an issue and we can do better and so I do recommend um to our new chair weeks
155that we do um put that on the agenda um in the future um in regarding uh the whole uh September opening um my big is communication um we uh really need to communicate with the um with everybody that's involved with the district especially the parents um we're looking at this um it's only in two months and um you know we do need a plan we do need to be flexible though we change is happening daily weekly uh with the covid-19 crisis and so what we decide this week could totally change in a month so we need to be flexible but we do need to communicate with everybody um especially the parents and um you know the superintendent might want to have a weekly you know Friday you know communication and saying okay I'm going to
156communicate once a week on this um but we do need to communicate um going forward especially because it it it impacts so many people um you know all the parents if if they're working how are they going to do if we have one week off one week on kind of thing so um that's all thank you and I see the two hands raised I just want to get to the two members who've been waiting quite a long time um member Bennett hi um uh so uh just just a a couple of things I know that I'm I'm new here I'm not exactly uh uh certain how it it all you know comes together but um I you know I I hear everybody you know talking about you know these uh uh these points and I
157do want to just make like a couple of of comments on um you know on some of those points and and um and you know they they there were incredible um incredibly well said um and uh I think that we need to not be afraid to completely think outside of the the Box um to answer some of these questions um instead of you know just um uh staying within the constraints of what we in our minds know of what school is um you know this hour to this hour every day um and your teacher is there from this hour to this hour each day if we kind of open that up uh in in in more um uh relaxed way maybe more hours different hours um maybe even just like a subject per day kind
158of thing I don't know I just think that we definitely need to like think outside the box to make this happen and not be um and and if there is some sort of like weird idea that somebody has to actually consider that as a possibility uh for it because this is something that's completely new um and we won't be able to solve it with traditional um uh uh Solutions uh in in the sense that we wish that we could um and uh you know considering you know the the health risks of going into the schools there's also you know mental health risks of making sure that a seven-year-old doesn't you know come within six feet of their friend um or or you know you know a six-year-old can't hug their teacher you know um these
159these mental health risks are are just uh humongous like I am so glad that my daughter is not in elementary school right now because that would devastate her um uh to not be able to have recess the way that uh it is meant to be uh had um and so I think you know a strong strong consideration for uh half day of of school uh you know I know that that's going to be uh that it's controversial because you know parents work I work and so that's you know that's going to be you know hard to do but uh giving that some sort of consideration um is is going to be important um and uh and not having you know lunch uh at the school specifically I think is is important because I mean I
160mean have you seen kids have lunch you've seen kids have lunch right I mean they they they spit when they they eat and it's just it's every it's everywhere um and they're mixing their milk with their ketchup and there just I mean it's it's messy it's not sanitary there's no way to make it so um without you know severe like a a risk for their their mental well-being um you know can you imagine all of the the you know reprimands every day just so much um and uh and I think uh I think that there should be more teachers uh instead of less right now um and uh to make that sort of thing happen I think that uh again thinking outside the box and opening up uh credential um there and allowing people that
161are expert in certain areas and not necessarily teacher teach classes um at certain times to allow for more classes to be held at different times of the day um again I don't know and so and then the the whole uh uh thoughts on on Race um I think that we definitely need to focus on anti-racism and anti-bullying right there right now there are programs in the school but um what I've seen of of those programs are that they are an uh victimhood training and I think that that is victim blaming and that you cannot train someone to not be a victim um they are everyone is different and I think we need to start from the ground up helping uh children to uh not want to bully and the only way to do that is
162is really starting from you know Ground Zero there like like pre school kindergarten you know and and and putting in a curriculum that follows them through school um and introduces them to the things that we all wish we knew like if you can think back of all the things that you wish that you knew back then those are the things that we need to focus on and there are programs and there are curriculums for that um in Silicon Valley where my daughter did you know 12 years of school they have something called project Cornerstone I don't know if you guys have uh that here or something similar to that but it is a curriculum that follows kids from kindergarten all the way through high school still teaching them all of those tools that they need
163for example filling buckets instead of um emptying buckets um and being an upstander versus a bystander and really kind of pushing that hole being an ally for your classmates and there were jerk kids but those jerk kids always came around I'm sorry those is kind of like the worst way to say but there are you know uh there are going to be kids that that still bully but they always apologized because they realized what was what was missing there and what I'm seeing right now in the schools the difference between that um kind of uh uh education system that that my daughter was part of and and here is that there is no coming back around and trying to make repairs with the The Bullying that that has has occurred and there need to be
164those repairs on both ends right so to to ever learn anything about it not just like get rid of the kids send them out they're not going to learn anything from that um and the the person that went through that isn't going to learn anything uh from that so uh really just you know uh getting it from the the the ground round up and and going all the way through uh uh the school system with that kind of curriculum is going to be uh best again I don't know how but those are those are my ideas there thank you so much um and then member Amos we're at 9:30 so hopefully we can get we have a very very very full agenda to come um I'll be quick the only thing I want to say
165is something that um I know a lot of parents are wondering right now and it has to do with it's come up several times here and um member Smith's comment in um the chat box um relates to it as well and I know there's a lot of parents trying to figure out if as came up before um if it is completely District decided whether kids are remote or at home or parents have a say because if parents don't have a say a lot of people are trying to figure out if they need to look into um remote accredited schools or if they need to look into true homeschooling and then the other half of that I've been hearing a lot of people talk about is and if there is a if it's not necess your
166choice um so in that that comment there Page Six from the the guidance um they'll need to have a a remote learning plan for students who are unable to return I know there's a lot of parents wondering um so is it going to be do you have to prove that your child has some sort of medical condition or someone in your house or are you going to have the right to say my family just isn't comfortable with it um and then whichever one you're doing do do we need to start looking into uh true homeschooling do we need to start looking into um online public school things like that so just a heads up to parents right now about um if they're going to have any options um that are not just dictated by the
167district is something that I know a lot of people are asking that was my only thing thank you so much um I didn't want to quickly very quickly um member long bu and member Lavoy had their hands raised is there a very quick comment you'd like to yes very quick I just want to Echo member gustafson's uh comment that uh I don't ever want to find out uh about a program cut in the landmark before I hear it from the school district I feel that that is backwards and it it makes it really difficult for us to serve our constituents so thank you Lavoy I'd just like to add um to member Brown and I think member Bennett um had had parallel um discussions um one on um the the racial issue the other on
168on bullying and I'd like to see a future meeting have bullying and the racial discussion as part of the agenda because I I think one um having a strong opportunity to report bullying to have resolution to it um can influence um the the feeling of of what we heard at last meeting so I definitely want to see bullying is part of the agenda with the with the racial um component built into it and I think it would be important to have um a discussion from the district because part of superintendent goals were um relooking at The Bullying intervention plan and I think it does come into play in a further discussion at the meeting thank you member Lavoy and the chair would Echo that um some emphasis on the bullying and racial um issues as
169well as um that timeline and kind of plan moving forward that members have requested okay thank you guys so much um so we have 12 items on our agenda tonight um so I'm going to try to move through them um as fast as I can um however the first item on the agenda will be taking some time so recommendations requiring action by the school committee um the first is to accept the annual evaluation of the superintendent of schools is there a motion to accept that so moved is there a second it's been moved and second it um as is our um our past president um typically the chair reads um that into the record um and I just wanted to ask um former chair Mills if he's comfortable with having me read that into the
170record or if he would wish to read it himself as he did author it if you can read quickly I'm all for you doing it all right I will do my best then all right okay so this is dated June 30th to Daryl McCall Ed superintendent of schools from Kenneth Mills wrsd former chair um regarding the narrative this memo serves to summarize the ratings and comments provided by 19 out of 20 members of the wsdc for your 2020 and the cycle summi of evaluation report please note while this doc document summarizes the responses it does not reflect every comment all these OB observations bring value and I strongly urge you to be carefully each individual evaluation standard one instructional leadership the education leader promotes the learning and growth of all students and the success of
171Staff by cultivating a shared Vision that makes powerful teaching and learning the central V focus of schooling the superintendent received um one indicator to exemplary seven proficient 10 needs Improvement and one was blank 1B instruction ensures that the instructional practices in all settings reflect high expectations regarding content and quality of effort and work engage all students and are personalized to accommodate diverse learning styles needs interest and level of Readiness nine proficient 10 needs Improvement 1 C assessment ensures that all principles and administrators facilitate practices that Propel Personnel to use a variety of formal and informal methods and assessments to measure student learning growth understanding and make necessary adjustments to the practice when students are not learning 10 proficient nine needs Improvement 1e data informed decisionmaking uses multiple sources of evidence related to Student Learning including
172state district and school assessment results and growth data to inform school and District goals and to improve organizational performance educator Effectiveness in student learning exemplary two proficient 10 means Improvement seven members noted that overall there was not sufficient evidence to support many of the indicators provided the superintendent was commended for frequent and regular communication with feedback to principles in their buildings as well as his work with professional learning team the professional learning team to make data informed decisions for the district during the covid-19 epidemic he worked diligently with District local and state officials to ensure transparency and solid decision making overall his efforts during the pandemic were Ed he was committed for beginning book groups in discussions about homework with the principles the superintendent was asked to provide further Evidence regarding teaching and learning and
173practices that promote inclusive teaching he was asked to provide further evidence of his efforts to Monitor and develop a variety of formal and informal assessment methods regarding data driven decisionmaking data compilation was noted as a positive that analysis of the data takes a while and plans to address areas of the need of the need of Improvement are slow to be developed and implemented furthermore response to survey data and resources collected on remote learning were noted as evidence of a lack of agility in the organization the superintendent must work to close gaps that still exist between different schools at the same grade level in the district there isn't sufficient evidence provided that personalized learning is being implemented consistently across all schools evidence should be provided that demonstrates efforts to challenge the most advanced students as as
174well as moving students in the middle to their full potential the committee understands that the pandemic interrupted the work on homework reading but wants a deeper sense of how the vision was developed and the substance of the principal's responses moreover the committee appreciated the evidence regarding the PLT meetings direct reports and curriculum work he has done but the evidence provided does not give us ample insight into the impact of his leadership in that sense there is little evidence that reflective practices include an assessment of student St learning engagement and growth that led to adjustment in instructional practice standard two management and operations promotes the learning and growth of all students in the success of Staff by ensuring a safe efficient and effective learning environment using resources to implement appropriate curriculum Staffing and scheduling proficient 14
175means Improvement four unsatisfactory one 2A environment develops and executes effective plans procedures routines and operational systems so address a full range of safety health and emotional needs of students proficient nine needs Improvement 10 law ethic and policies 2-D implements a cohesive approach to recruitment hiring induction development and career growth that promotes high quality and effective practice Exemplar one proficient 16 needs Improvement one unsatisfactory one members noted that the superintendent resp respects all stake holders and receiv receives feedback with respect some members praise the handling of the covid crisis in particular with limited state level leadership some praised handling of distribution of food to Kids in Need despite a concern about low usage rate of this service another noted his proactive handling of the Triple E threat there are positive remarks about having the best interest
176of community at Heart during bargaining and positive comments about his handling of the district as a system and a sense of moral morality ethics and judgment concerns were expressed by members about the pace of change in action in respect to implicit bias and attention to racial issues in the district including a lack of followup to student and alumni cons comments at the June meeting administrative attention needs to be paid to diversity and staff at the teaching and the administration level members ex Express concern about the actualization of the superintendent's plan in schools about social emotional learning and bullying and a desire for more direction to PR principles that his vision be implemented consistently concerns were also expressed about communication to families in a transition toote learning and the pedagogical principles behind it and a perceived
177lack of follow-up to surveys the issue of Medicaid reimbursement was noted as a negative as well as of information flow and transparency members wish for more timely and clear communication about financial planning contingency planning for reopening ahead of Desi Guidance with the superintendent taking a strong role in this planning standard three family and Community engagement promotes the learning and growth of all students and success of Staff through effective partnership with family community organizations and other stakeholders that support the mission of the school and District proficient 11 needs Improvement 8 3A engagement continuously collaborates with family and Community stakeholders to support Student Learning and Development at home school and Community exemplary 1 proficient 11 needs Improvement 7 3B sharing responsibility continuously collaborates with families to support Student Learning and Development both at home and school proficient
17811 needs Improvement seven unsatisfactory one 3C communication engages in regular two-way culturally proficient communication with families about student learning and performance exemplary one proficient nine needs Improvement eight unsatisfactory one 3D family concerns addresses family and Community concerns and equitable effective and efficient manner proficient 11 needs Improvement 8 there are two themes that emerge from school committee feedback related to this standard first the superintendent continues to maintain strong relationships with Town boards police and fire departments and he has made some progress in communicating with District stakeholders second there are notable references to his increased Outreach to families using surveys in the past few months those sentiment was shared that surveys while an improvement do not represent regular two-way communication with stakeholders the superintendent was encouraged to be a more visible presence throughout the district either in
179person or via electronic communication many many members acknowledge that the crisis by covid-19 in this winter presented a challenge beyond the scope of what anyone could imagine the superintend again was praised by prioritizing the delivery of food to families in need and distributing Chromebooks to families without adequate access areas of concern were in three areas engagement with Community organizations and businesses frequency and Clarity of communication and cultural sensitivity the superintendent was again encouraged to look Beyond relationships with Town boards police and fire and build relationships with our community to support Innovative programming and fund initiatives to our students as was noted several re viewers praise the increase of in frequency of communication but encourage Improvement in the mode of Engagement and Clarity of communications one member noted that Communications seem reactive or obligatory rather than
180proactive in seeking collaboration and partnership for change a different member shared a number of suggestions including increasing the district social media presence sending video messages or hosting q&as to provide teachers and staff in the community an opportunity to dialogue with the superintendent related to the quality and transparency of communication some members expressed concern that Communications were either slower than desired or missed the mark an example provided by one member noted that none of the messages shared during the pandemic process outlined the process and timeline for establishing the remote learning plan which created a vacuum of information and left parents wondering what education for their child might look like for a period of time it is also noted that a recent testimony from students at the June 8th school committee meeting made an apparent need for
181a greater focus on cultural diversity inclusivity across the district it is unclear whether District Communications are translated into multiple languages multiple students Express their disappointment that a statement of diversity from the district was not shared in a timely manner and did not address students directly there was a concern that expressed the social emotional well-being of our minority students has been overlooked and that this opportunity to help students process recent events and nowhere watch who stand has been missed standard four professional culture promote success for all students by nurturing sustaining a culture of reflective practice high expectations and continuous learning for staff proficient 10 needs Improvement nine 4A commitment to high standards Fosters a shared commitment to high standards in teaching and learning with high expectations and achievement for all including Mission and core values develops
182promotes and secures staff communication to core values that guided development of a sustin results oriented mission statement and ongoing decision making meetings and planning and leads a well-run and engagement engaging meetings that have a clear purpose focus on matters and consequence and engage participants in a thoughtful and productive series of conversations and deliberations about important School matters Exemplar two proficient 13 needs Improvement four 4 B cultural proficiency ensures that policies and practice enable staff in enable staff members and students to interact effectively in cultural diverse environment in which students backgrounds identity strengths and challenges are respected proficient six needs Improvement 11 unsatisfactory two 4D continuous learning developed and nurtur is a culture in which staff members are reflective about their practice and use of student data current research and best practices and Theory to continuously
183adapt in adapt instruction and Achieve improved results models these behaviors and administrator's own practice proficient 13 needs Improvement six 4E shared vision continuously engages all stakeholders in a creation of shared educational Vision in which every student is prepared to succeed and a post-secondary education and become responsible citizens and Community contributors Exemplar one proficient 8 needs Improvement 10 under this standard members noted the superintendent has good relationships with principles and generally apprais his desire to provide training via book reading and plts members noted that he appears committed conceptually to change and has implemented plans for district Improvement that he has advocated with stakeholders at the same time members note that the Imp implementation of plans is lacking or slow either because of budget concerns or the need of more boldness in his leadership the remote learning
184plan seem slow to roll out which can reflect on these standards for excellence that is expected from the top or needed for more resources some members noted that requested data was slow to be delivered and that the superintendent has not made progress in setting District indicators for excellence many members made comments under the standard for the need for much more action in cultural competency and for more diversity in staff and administration overall in this standard members wanted more emphasis and the results of plans not just that they were done and more feedback and effectiveness of leadership some communication issues were noted with the community as some in the community noted that there isn't um consultation even when a representative committees are formed and some Community groups note a lack of rep receptiveness from the district
185about collaborations progress towards goal student learning goal by June 2020 the superintendent will establish a vision for homework philosophy and aligned practices to ensure a more consistent application of homework protocols across the district significant progress eight some progress 10 did not meet one professional practice School the superintendent by Leading professional learning experiences focus on the development of cultural proficiency and Knowledge and Skills will ensure administrators share a vision for the WUSA district and are consistent in their practice significant five sum progress 10 did not meet four District Improvement goal one by June 2020 the superintendent will deliver a 10-year plan of action to address enrollment Trends throughout the district met one significant progress eight some progress eight did not meet two Improvement goal two by April 2020 the superintendent will update the bullying prevention and
186intervention plan bpip working with the administrative team and Educators in the community in the process met seven significant Pro ress seven some progress four did not meet one the progress towards goals was clearly affected by covid-19 in early March at the same time the lack of met ratings is a concern the committee wants to see more progress towards a homework philosophy including results and interpretation of results and from the feedback of staff and parents the vision is a start but more dep and feedback is needed to guide District policy and individual teacher decisions around the administration of homework much more progress needs to be made in the terms of bias and anti racism despite the co Interruption this needs to be much more of a priority the draft Staffing plan was shared with the committee
187although now it needs to be revised the committee wishes for more information about how the superintendent's principles were used to make choices about reductions including impact and student learning programs the school committee continues to wish for more information about why students leave our schools and opportunities for an Innovative program to create IND District magnet schools such as the steam program at TPS The Bullying plan has yet to be sh with the committee committee stakeholders were involved but research research was well considered and the resulting plan appears reasonable but is difficult to evaluate without a formal presentation to the committee a future goal can be linked to an implementation of the plan with attention to the consistent of it consistency of its implementation and on stakeholder feedback to ensure bullying is reported overall rating proficient 11
188needs Improvement seven unsatisfactory One impact on student learning High three moderate 11 Low four blank 1 members noted that the size of the district and committee make it challenging for the superintendent to be responsive to all issues others note relationships have been established with the towns and unions and many note his calm and steady tone and his caring demeanor for faculty and staff there is concern that progress in positive change is slow and such change needs Clear Vision and more vigorous implementation starting from the top if the administration is too stretched to do its job it needs needs to articulate this to the committee and the Staffing plan cultural diversity and anti-racism needs to be a very high priority next year remote learning needs to be better assessed and learning objectives more clearly articulated and
189shared with student staff and families overall communication of families can be improved in ways that facilitate two-way communication the committee did acknowledge the hard work required to meet this crisis and Implement remote learning plans in the fly the lack of evidence presented for some indicators and a lack of evidence on impact of activities may have influenced the overall evaluation in a negative way we hope that the activities the evidences activities and the evidence in support these activities will result in higher ratings in the instructional leadership standard next year we also note the high rating in the law ethics and po policies indicator under standard four we note the high ratings under commitment to high standards which seems consistent with our shared vision of the consistent view of our consistent with our view of the super
190superintendent's character and the same standard there are low scores for shared Vision we encourage the superintendent to work on making certain that his vision isn't executed throughout the district overall the ranking was 11 proficient seven kns Improvement one unsatisfactory this is a decrease in percentages of a proficient rating from the past two years with 11 proficient five needs Improvement last year and one exemplary and one Exemplar 15 proficient and four needs Improvement two years ago the impact on student student learning was also higher last year with five high nine moderate one low to three High 11 moderate four low and one blank this year we encourage the superintendent to consider how to leverage his strengths and use his role as an educational leader of the district to ensure that his vision is executed efficiently consistently
191with clear two-way communication we also encourage the superintendent and next year's evaluation subcommittee to work together early in the year to develop a more comprehensive evaluation process for next year including meaningful feedback from Community stakeholders what follows are what I read above in graphic format is there discussion seeing none actually I think before the discussion uh member Guston has a point of order regarding our time oh is it up well it's approaching I know uh member guses in your point of order please or someone else would like to make the same point of order motion to extend the meeting to 10:30 second second is moved in seconding any discussion we'll have a roll call vote starting at the Top member amus um yes member you can say yes that's fine yes member Bennett Bennett yes
192member brown brown yes M Dennis Dennis yes member Gus I think she's disconnected member Haber Haber yes member Ember member yes member chran bomb chran bomb yes member Lavoy Lavoy yes member long B yes member Mills Ms yes member Mitchell believe Ben has left the meeting member atar yes member Shapiro Shapiro yes member Silva Silva yes member weeks yes member Williamson Williamson yes member Woodland Woodland yes and member young young yes and you you skipped me Megan but I'll vote Yes Smith yes okay and member Gus is back um we just made a motion to extend to 10:30 Mala Mala okay seems like she's having difficulty with the connection I believe the motion passes unanimously at 51 any discussion member Dennis thank you so um you know first I I think that the composite that
193uh former chair Mills put together largely reflects um the sentiment of the individual evaluations uh recognizing that that's sometimes more art than science uh appreciate his work in doing that um second you know I think that the um pardon me I think that the um ad hoc committee did a a nice job in in taking what is a very complex rubic as as rubric as as people can hear uh and making that accessible and for those who don't know we evaluate the superintendent across four standards um which uh which which you read um to say that this has been um a challenging four months is is an understatement um but as I put on my my management consulting hat which happens to be my day job um I look at data and I look at
194Trends over time and I wanted to share three Trends um that that I notice um one is that there is a downward Trend um in the ratings of uh proficiency over the last four years um so if we take as a percentage uh overall rating of proficient or higher in 2017 it was 85% proficient or higher in 2018 it was 80% proficient or higher in 2019 last year it was 69 % proficient or higher uh this year and in this evaluation it's at 58% uh proficient or higher uh that's Trend number one Trend number two um is that uh this is the second time that communication I think has been a feature uh area of improvement uh both in needing to be done um in a in a two-way manner in a way that's timely
195and in a way that's impactful um third and certainly not least is that this is the second year in a row uh where we've uh the district has sustained a very significant loss of Revenue due to lack of administrative oversight uh last year with respect to Transportation reimbursement uh this year with respect to Medicaid reimbursement um those two um issues uh are total into the millions um about a million dollars uh per event uh in rough terms with Medicaid probably being a bit higher than that um those are disturbing Trends and I point that out because I think as we continue to look forward uh we all uh want to make sure that we're working with the superintendent um to reverse these Trends um we this is not a direction for these items that we
196want to see uh continuing into the future um as we go into this process next year I have two suggestions uh one is that um we look to make this process more collab collaborative across the committee the full committee the reason I say that it's a very large committee um there's a lot of variability across 20 some odd people um if you look at standard one for example uh most of the evaluators more evaluators uh rated uh needs Improvement than proficient or or exemplary um however there was an exemplary uh rating and and so there's a range of perspectives that I think are valuable and it's it's I think worth um for all of us to be able to hear and share before we land to this place um second is you know my hope
197is that we can come to a common standard of expectation um that is both outcome based and data driven um and you know again I I think that we're we're continuing to be a work in progress I think the ad hoc committee has done a very remarkable job but I think that those are two areas where where you have some work um yet to do um I'd offer three recommendations um to various people one to the full committee you know if you haven't already um all of the individual evaluations have been released um they're available to members of the committee um they offer unique perspectives and and I suggest that um that that everyone read so that you're informed if you may not agree um but you're at least informed of others perspect perspectives um
198to there was mention of District uh indicators for Success I'm a firm believer that you cannot make meaningful change you can't answer the question how are we doing as a district unless you're measuring something um and so uh we this is something that we've asked for for over years now um I would request that to the chair and and to the committee um that uh we consider and establish an ad hoc committee to develop um and then start to uh Monitor and track uh districtwide indicators for success and fin uh with respect to reports and communication out to the committee um my request would be and and I think this has been uh mentioned by multiple uh evaluators as well is that whenever there is a report out the committee um that we not see
199it as sufficient to Simply have a report of what's been done but rather a report of what's been done how it was effective or whether or not it was effective the effectiveness of it and it's impact on Student Success um too often we're getting readouts of I've attended a meeting or we've done a book study or the committee has met and they're going to meet again um but we're not getting the perspective we're not getting the Insight on on what on how that's be being meaningful and how uh that's impacting Student Success factors and so I hope that those suggestions and recommendations uh will be taken into consideration thank you thank you member and again if we can keep our comments to about two minutes each it would be helpful to move things along um
200M guson you said you're gonna try audio and if not type it yeah I've got you now can you all hear me yes can you hear me okay I'll try weird um I have three things I wanted to mention um first that there was a lot of lack of evidence cited and I struggled with that in doing this I didn't really struggle because we had this discussion last year um there is the opportunity to provide evidence on all of these standards and I assume um that if we do not receive evidence of a standard then there it doesn't exist that's how I was trained in research so that's how I uh that we can only judge by what we have in front of us so I I don't I caution us about assuming that lack
201of evidence equals lack of equals proficiency just because we don't have any data either direction I think that it indicates that there perhaps isn't a lot of evidence in that area um so I I'd suggest that in the future I think the wide variety of responses and we talked about this last year um indicates we really have a need to build some training and consistency and discussion about how we approach these processes into the future um we talked last year about the need to if you don't fully meet a criteria do you vote rate that higher or do you vote that lower if when I look at things if there's a need to improve under a standard I won't rate that standard as proficient because there's not enough evidence to suggest that um but I
202know other people see that and say well three of them were proficient and one was not so I'm going to say proficient but if three of them are proficient and one is not that is not proficient um so I think we need to have some discussions as a committee about how to consistently do this in the future and what the different standards mean um in the process um and my final comment is about standard or in [Music] part Malia we're losing you here Malia I think we've lost you again would you mind [Music] cultur Malia can you type out your thank you for just okay sorry get in my back yeah we we had you all the way to standard four if you can type out your standard four comments it would be appreciated yes
203okay thank you uh member Lavo y member La I will type the last comment all right thank you yes I believe me member Lavoy had his hand raised two seconds here go ahead all right two seconds I I um I really appreciate that feedback from Member Dennis I think that the those are all good suggestions I think one other suggestion that I would ask of of the chair and of administration is I know last year when we developed the goals we had asked for the superintendent to perhaps in his report to provide evidence as it as as the year progressed and I think as a school committee we didn't really hold um him accountable to that through the year in terms of where is that in the report we didn't get much of that through
204the year and I think that at the end of the day that really um hurts from an evaluation perspective when you're looking at evidence which govern whether or not somebody met a standard or not so my suggestion or ask is that we put a specific spot on that report that says evidence towards goals and if it's blank for that report I'm going to assume nothing's been done for it and there's no evidence and if there is I think it's an opportunity to build a a nice um cohesive output of a goal in in the progress towards it throughout the year and I I would stress that that is utmost importance and I'm going to hold myself accountable to ask for that if it is not in in consistent reports because at this point I think
205lack of evidence is the overwhelming theme on a lot of these standards and it's it's disheartening that we have specific rubrics that cite evidence and then there is no evidence to back progress towards towards specific goals thank you very much um I believe member Smith added in the chat um as well to add to your comment not just goals but evidence for the standards as well in all the reports and just to read member gusterson's comment she was surprised to see standard 4 rated as proficient after what we heard in our last meeting regarding cultural competency in particular and with the number number of people rated that element needs Improvement and surprised to see it as proficient overall um is there any more discussion on this item seeing none we'll do a roll call vote
206to accept the EV annual evaluation of the superintendent um well from the top again member Amos Amos abstain Bennett Bennett abstain member Brown BR yes member Dennis Dennis yes member G if you want to put that works as well member habber Haber yes member in member ember in yes member did vote Yes in the CH member kers bomb kers B yes member Lavoy Lavoy yes member long buo yes member Mills Ms yes member Mitchell I believe is still not with us member otar otar yes member Shapiro Shapiro obain member Silva Silva yes member Smith Smith yes weeks yes member Williamson Williamson abstains member Woodland Woodland yes and member young young yes um at this point um seeing as it is already 10:03 um question to the superintendent um just in priority order of our agenda
207um I know we have to do end D tonight are there other things you'd like to put towards the top of the agenda to make sure they're covered I I believe e and D is probably the the most pertinent one right now um I apolog through the chair um I'd also like to add uh the the budget transfer of $150,000 um from the Transportation appropriation uh to the transportation stabilization and and that uh today is the final Deb uh day to to enact that um as well as with exent deficiency okay so um the chair is going to take those two items out of order um member gusterson you have your hand raised I I have my hand raised Sor long bil that's okay uh do we have to deal with the bus contract tonight
208uh through the chair uh just just very quickly um AA Transportation um has not uh signed uh the uh the amended agreement um attorney batulis uh presented uh uh to AA Transportation a revised agreement and U he has countered uh with uh a a follow-up revised agreement um at the end of the day there's approximately $1.4 million encumbered um if um if this does not get resolved this evening and it probably won't uh those dollars remain encumbered and we can certainly make those payments to AA and to vanpool um on the final warrant of the fiscal year on uh July 15 um in the um in the event that there is no successful resolution um as I explained uh to the superintendent uh Administration does have a game plan in place um as to how
209those encumbrances uh uh could be expensed um as we wrap up uh the fiscal year okay right I'm just going to take those first two items out of order and then we'll we'll start from the top again um so we're going to go to item six of the agenda to authorize the use of $450,000 of certified excess and deficiency funds when excess and deficiency account as a um as Cuts in fy21 state aid from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts um due to the covid-19 crisis do I have a motion so move second it's been moved in second is there any discussion on this report or does director Dei um wish to make any clarifying comments uh through the chair uh what we would be doing is uh uh reducing uh uh chapter 78 uh in the
210uh FY in budget as it currently exists uh due to the fact the anticipated uh lost in State uh Revenue uh we would replace that $450,000 with this $450,000 in excess and deficiency in the event uh that uh um state aid were to be greater uh than uh what was budgeted uh this use of access and deficiency would fall through our bottom line uh next year um member Dennis has his hand ra I'm sorry call yeah Mike are you ready I am thank you I I thought was Linda was was ahead of me there um yeah I want to make some comments around uh end this was this was discussed I mentions I mentioned earlier extensively um at business and finance and and wanted to share a few points some of which I've made in
211meeting um you know first you know I think that the um uh Genesis of of having this motion made at this point in time which is before the end of the current school year was in a scenario where we're looking at being in 112th budget um and not being able to access those funds hadn't incorporated as part of the budget uh prior to to the end of this fiscal year um and certainly that's no longer the case uh we're we're not looking at one 12th budget at this point um we are as as we know uh still have the uncertainty around uh what the state budget um will will bring to us against what we previously assumed and so I guess you know before I go on my first question to through the chair of
212the administration is that given that we have an approved budget um from four out of five towns um what does this motion if anything um due to that exist budget that's been passed and is there any type of notification that we need to give to the towns uh for them to either passively or or actively take action on this motion so through the chair to to the second question uh we would be required simply to inform the towns that we were making uh this adjustment that we were reducing Chapter 70 by approximately $450,000 and replacing that with excess and deficiency uh we are not changing um our bottom line in in terms of the uh the budget okay so so thank you for that so um again going back to the question of of excess
213and deficiency a couple of points um one our current level of excess and deficiency um as I'll remind folks is is less than what we set by policy um by policy we have a floor of 1% of the operating uh budget um our current level of excess and deficiency is below that um number two um we in ordinary times when the district um has a a balance at the end of the year it would be the practice of the district to uh take those funds and apply them for certification of excess and deficiency in the following year um this is not a usual year what we've done instead what the administration is planning to do instead is to be creative with those excess funds re allocate expenses and move those funds to a revolving account
214so that rather than put them or have them certified in excess and deficiency they are moved into a revolving account uh where they can be used and expended upon for next year um which means that there would be no additional dollars or little additional dollars uh to be certified into excess and efficiency for next year that's coming out of this budget um having said all that and by the way there's we we've learned in the last business finance meeting that there's an additional $300,000 that's being put into those revolving funds um that was not part of the tiered reductions having said all that and the point that I've made in the past to me the purpose of excess and deficiency is when when we when we Face an unexpected um situation that we have some
215ability to maneuver against that if for example we believe that there is at least a 50% chance that there's our very recurrence of this virus such that we incur expenses um that are unforeseen today in the middle of the year the worst possible scenario is that we need to make Staffing adjustments in the middle of the Year using the excess and deficiency now uh weakens our ability to be refle re reactive in that time um second if we believe that this is a multi-year problem and most people believe that it is we a very well find situation where we're looking out next year and looking at the same cost of living increases the same uh Insurance increases and realizing that further uh level of service reductions are going to need to be made we will
216not have those funds available to us then if we expend them now um so it's my suggestion uh and my suggestion alone that it's not prudent at this point to access our excess deficiency uh but rather continue the practice of rolling funds that are unexpended into this year and making them available through revolving accounts for next year thank you member Dennis um member Ms okay just be brief um there's a pro and a con right so the pro and voting yes tonight in my mind just one person's opinion is that it gives us the option of using this money this is the deadline uh today to vote to have this money available it doesn't actually require us to spend the money it just requires it to be made available to be spent um otherwise we
217have to wait till it's recertified in January December January whenever that might be uh to be able to go back to the towns the towns would need to approve our use of this of this money um and that could be passive um the con of course as member Dennis points out is that if we have nine c Cuts mid year or we need the money next year and we've given the superintendent the flexibility to use it and he chooses to do so against our wishes then then we don't have as much in in reserve to use so it is a balance of a risk against future cuts to the fact that we Face Cuts now and those that's the decision we have to make tonight but tonight we're voting on having the flexibility to use
218the money it doesn't mean that the superintendent is going to write a $450,000 check tomorrow and spend it uh it just means that today is our deadline for being able to have that possibility exist in my mind thank you member Mills um member longia um I understand both the administration's perspectives and uh member Dennis's uh perspective on this one uh so I'd like to uh suggest a compromise and make an amendment to the motion okay so I'd like to amend the EM motion so that the amount of excess and deficiency that we would spend that we' be authorize we would authorize the superintendent to tap into to expand um would be no more than uh $275,000 there's an amendment on the floor is there a second second a second so now we're going to be
219having discussion on the amendment not on the original motion itself does anybody have a specific comment towards the amendment that Linda proposed can the superintendent had give his opinion on the amendment so um again when we're looking at this was part of that tier one model and um I'm of I agree with with Ken um in reference to this being a double-edged sword um this does give us a little flexibility in reference to having access to these funds um if we do run into some trouble um down the road it's it's right there um you know that putting it forth um you know or putting it in into a lower um dollar amount uh it still gives us access to uh those funds um not as much as that that original amount that we had
220allocated but again I think we're in a little better position ultimately because of the funds that we were able to carry forward so um 275 would work for us as well thank you superintendent are there others that wish to speak to the amendment on the floor I had a question yes member Lavoy so follow up to remember Dennis made an original point and I think this comes into the amendment he had made a a comment that our end was below the balance was currently below what what would be considered a reasonable threshold to to absorb um impacts to financial changes within the budget so I just want to understand what balance is what the impact would be with with the amended amount and what that does to to that that balance and where we are
221either finding on your or above so I can um I can I can speak to that Megan Ju Just you know very quickly on on on um member Lavoy Point what I was referring to was the floor that's established by policy um but I also did refer to our ability to to to um to Pivot uh with nine c Cuts I think we're way below that um but to specify numbers and Dan you can correct me if I'm wrong I think we're somewhere around 9 between 975 and 950 is where we stand with end after um the field Turf uh payment is made um so 275 would reduce us to 700,000 um uh if that motion carries through the chair my understanding is it's about 25% or so of the balance I'm sorry I'm sorry
222Matt mat can could you respond I can get to your question so I think Matt's looking for clarification of what percent off the balance it would be so uh through the chair our current balance and we've made the adjustment um on on the field Turf for the last uh meeting uh the current balance is 963000 um and uh if we uh use 275,000 we'd have approximately 688,000 just under 700,000 are remaining um in excess and deficiency and uh um as we wrap up the fiscal year obviously uh um and we we we close out the fiscal year um any any fund balance uh from fy20 would be rolled uh into that uh um as we go through the certification process for next year so you have another question no I just want the percent is
223nearly 30% it's a 28.5 five% of the the Cent balance that would be authoriz thank you for doing the math on that we appreciate it um are there other questions to the yeah I I have a question if we if we remove the money from end and we don't spend it can we put it back at some point through the chair uh These funds close out at the end of the day today and um and then we begin a new uh come July 1 and through the certification process um again uh we'd be starting at approximately 9 if we didn't touch anything here we have a balance of 963000 and U um any remaining funds from 20 would be added to that um and then we would look at any any shot Falls in 20
224that would be used to to reduce that balance so director Brown's question was more if we don't end up using the 275 at the end of this year can we put it back into that account where does it go if we do not use it it closes out we through the Cher uh the fund close out and it falls to the bottom line and we lose access to those dollars again until it gets recertified uh late next fall okay so we would have to wait late next fall to re access those I'm sorry I didn't hear the question so if we choose not to use we have to wait till late next fall so fall 2021 in order right if the committee chooses not to act on this request this evening then we would need
225to go through the certification process again and again that would be a late fall um in um in in the event that there there were an issue next year um similar to the field Turf procurement um we would identify a sum of money and then um the superintendent would need to inform the towns give them 45 days notice make them aware uh that we're looking to access a sum of money for purposes of discussion let's just say it's $200,000 um and the towns have 45 days to to um uh vote to react uh to that so just to clarify not it would not be there was somebody before you if we can raise our hands in the chat um because member Haber already had a question um member Haber you wanted to um speak to
226um the original motion um member long willo can you just clarify how you came up with that number um it was between a quarter and a third actually um so um that's that's how I came up with it it was between a quarter a little more than a quarter and about 5% less than a third thank you very much uh member Dennis you're next sure so you know again just to clarify two things one recertification happens every year every year the district is required to recertify no later than October 31 um the recertification process depending on a number of factors um Can Happen and make those funds available ailable as early as November or December of 2020 not of 2021 so that's the first clarification the second clarification it's that again if if the idea
227here is that we're reducing our budget to reduce Chapter 70 funds we're saying we're expecting that there's going to be less state aid coming in um that means we're expending these dollars we wouldn't be voting on this today to not expend these dollars the only situation where we would not be expending these dollars is we got all of the state aid we don't think that that's a very likely outcome um so you know again I understand the rationel these these dollars are being used as an offset to the lack of state aid that would be coming in there's a number of other things including rolling over funds that we would ordinarily certify for end um that uh that that we would that we are using we're using as a practice um this is in addition
228uh to that and so you know I can probably be fine settling someplace in between but to say or suggest that we're going to do this just in case we need to use it if we certify if we if we push this motion forward we're going to use it okay thank you member Dennis are there any other discussion to the amendment on the floor um especially any new pertinent points seeing none we're going to take a roll call vote um I'm going to start from the bottom this time so we can let at the end of the alphabet go first member young young yes member Woodland Woodland yes member Williamson Williamson yes the chair abstains member Smith Smith yes member Silva Silva yes member Shapiro Shapiro abstains member otar otar no member Mills Mills yes
229member long bullo yes member Lavoy Lavo no member Persian bom abstain member Ember Bob you with us I'm going to circle back to Bob while I check to see if he's still here remember ha yes member gusten Guston yes member Dennis Dennis yes member brown brown yes member Bennett Bennett yes member Amos Amos abstains member Ember yes thank you I believe the amendment now passes so as it my first chair process question since the amendment passes do we now still have to vote on the original motion or the motion as amended right I believe that's right all right I'm getting there yay I'm doing I'm doing it really doing it all right so now um the motion now reads um to authorize the use of 275,000 of certified excess and deficiency funds in the excess
230deficiency count as a Miss cuss in fy21 state aid from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts due to the covid-19 crisis is there a discussion now on that motion member Mills I think there's a point of Order ahead of me but uh I just wanted to clarify member Brown's question about um if we didn't use the money it would it it's to the bottom line the district can either have put it into a revolving account roll it forward or it could go to end um if there's if we don't spend the money although I suspect as member um thenna suggest we would spend it if we vote for it thank you member Gus I was just noticing the time again sorry a motion to extend the meeting another half hour there's a motion the meeting is there
231a second second second any discussion of the motion okay starting from the bottom again member young young yes member Woodland yes Williamson yes member weeks yes member Smith yes member Silva Silva yes member Shapiro Shapiro abstain member amarar yes member Mitchell member Mills Mills yes long buo yes member Lavoy Lavoy yes member kers bomb kers bomb yes member Ember Ember yes member Haber a yes member gersen gon yes member Dennis Dennis yes member brown brown yes member Bennett Bennett yes and member Amos yes okay so we're circling back to the motion on the floor which is to authorize use of $275,000 of end funds from the Indie account as a as a help to cuts and fy21 state aid from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts during the covid-19 crisis it's been moved seconded Is there further
232discussion mem art is that a hand towards this it is yes it's it's a clarifying question for this because this is there was discussion before I believe on the on with this being budget related and requiring a super majority is that correct this is a clarifying question with this let me look it up and if anybody knows the answer quicker than I can find it out I'd appreciate it contracts I would believe um it would be my opinion that a 2third majority would be required for this motion as it is budget related any further questions member Woodland um yeah my question is just about uh what member uh what Vice chair Dennis had said about um the 300,000 that was uh realized with um the reduction uh to 275 I guess my question would be
233why not uh one 50 um what would that be reflected in uh administration's point of view of how to handle like the tiered cuts and things like that since that 300,000 is not reflected in the tiered Cuts I don't know if that I'm sorry it's late I don't know if I'm and clear at all through the chair uh the the reason for the addition $300,000 is that uh uh we have we began in earnest the close out process uh for fiscal year uh 20 um we we've made adjustments uh uh between school choice for example and the general fund um backing out expenditures that originally made into school choice back into the general fund um number one number two uh we've been making uh ongoing adjustments uh again between circuit breaker and and the general
234fund again we we built up Savings in the general fund um we we built up Savings in salary we built up savings uh with with stiens we built up savings with utilities uh there were other areas that we built up savings that that gave us the ability to to make these adjustments um we we continue to to drill down and uh to look at where we can uh potentially keyw is potentially uh realize any additional savings that that may help us uh with with with 21 does that help remember wood um I guess what I'm looking for is uh if if the end was being looked at to offset um and then there's this other with closing out for the year there are these other things that are offsetting wouldn't it make sense um to
235look at a a further reduction of end and just looking at the 1% window um threshold for keeping an end um I guess I just wanted to probe that a little bit but if that's outside the realm that's that's fine by me the state uh funding uh through the chair uh State funding uh remains uh a huge unknown um especially relative to Chapter 70 um and uh that was the driving force and in making this original recommendation are there further questions or discussion seeing No Hands we'll take a roll call vote starting from the top this time member Amos Amos abstains member Bennett abstain member brown brown yes member Dennis Dennis no member guson Guston yes member Haber Amber yes member in in yes member kers bom cian bom no member Lavoy Lavoy no member
236long buil I apologize um I'm realizing that I'm I lost track of where we were um so I'm going so is it too late for me to ask for a point of information um at this point yes Linda okay then I I have to uh I have to reluctantly abstain member Mills Mills yes member otar Omar no member Shapiro shapir OB stains member Silva can you just repeat what Yes means to this motion the the motion on the floor is to authorize of 275,000 from Andy yeah um can I change my [Laughter] vote am I allowed to do that I'm sorry I'm just very tired I was up past midnight last night can't I don't think you can change your vote Linda all right thank you um member Silva you have the floor yeah my
237vote's no member Smith Smith no member Williamson Williamson yes member Woodland Woodland no member young young yes and the chair abstains um Madam Secretary do you have a tally on that vote uh I'll be right there please thank you I believe it does not pass but I just want to check seven years seven no and five abstains the motion of floor does not pass can can I raise a point of order yes because I tried to ask the same question that ASA asked which was what is the motion about that's what I was trying to that's what I was trying to to get at um and I couldn't get that information um as a point of order I I had typed it into the um chat as well and then read it a number of
238times um it needs a super two-thirds majority to pass so even if your vote was changed it still would not pass okay all right okay I'm sorry I know we're all very tired at this I'm so yeah I'm very tired and I thought I I thought we had passed it just before we had passed the amendment and then we had to make we had to pass the motion as it okay that's right okay all right all right um the motion does not pass okay the next item on the agenda um as recommended by the superintendent we're going to go to agenda item number seven to authorize a budget transfer of $150,000 from the Transportation appropriation to the transportation stabilizations account with the superintendent or director DD like to speak to this so through the chair
239this is a request um to uh transfer $150,000 into the stabilization account uh this this account was created by the committee uh several years ago I believe in 2015 and uh these dollars would be used to um offset Transportation costs in fy21 um they can only be used for for one uh fiscal year and uh again this is the result of uh savings uh from from transportation is numers or questions to Director D um in the chat um the um one of our student asked about the differences between the two accounts could you just clarify that for him so through the chair I'm sorry which account the stabilization or yeah the difference between stabilization and just the transportation appropriation okay so Transportation appropriation that is part of the general fund that's part of our operating
240budget uh the stabilization account has this different set of Mass general laws uh that are used to to create this account and it's it's it's treated um if you will as as a rainy day fund for lack of better term uh used to offset uh those costs and the subsequent uh fiscal year so one is general fund one is revolving fund does that clarify for you yes thank you okay is there further discussion Megan I don't think anyone made the Motions or I didn't get the names correct um I'll make the motion as printed in the agenda under item number seven second seeing No Hands raised um we'll go through a roll call vote starting from the top member Amos Amos abstains member Bennett abstains member br brown brown yes member Dennis Dennis yes member
241guson cson yes member Haber Sher you still with us Che he yes okay thank you member Ember Ember yes but I also raised the point of order about the indd motion um yes let me go into the chat and look at that right in one second um member chrisan bomb chrisan bomb yes member ly Lavoy yes member long yes member Mills Mills yes member otar otar yes member Shapiro Shapiro webstein member Silva Silva yes member Smith Smith yes member Williamson Williamson yes member Woodland Woodland yes member young young yes the chair obain um back to Bob's point of order which was was in the chat he asked if don't we go back to the original motion it's my understanding that the motion was Amendment amended and the amendment passed and so then the motion was
242then voted on as amended Bob but it it didn't pass but the amendment passed the motion as Amendment failed right so we do not go back and we vote on it I think you go back to the original then no we don't because it was P it was amended and passed we don't go back to the original because the original no longer exists because it was amended understanding up uh Ken do you want to weigh in I think he did in the chat he said what I said was correct okay all right so at this time um being 10:40 um superintendent m is there any other items on the agenda you'd like us to really quickly get to before the end of the evening tonight sure we good just just just real quick uh Madame
243chair the two budget transfers we can post ball those to the next meeting excuse me and then number 10 and number 11 uh those must be voted by school committee but um I'm not aware where we can't postpone those to the very first meeting in in in July okay thank you very much superintendent right so what I'd like to do is uh go back to um number number two yep all right so let's go through those two um those two moas and then and we can then postpone the rest of the agenda items to our next meeting agenda item number two on our agenda tonight was to authorize the superintendent of schools to sign the memorandum of agreement between the wsd and the wrea special education extended school year is there a motion um is
244there a move to accept the motion on the floor so move second uh superintendent would you like to discuss this motion first sure so uh this is a um continuation of our regular school year uh Mo MOA that just moves into the summer for our uh teachers who will be providing special education services we reviewed this with WIA um we had members of legal sub on there as well as our uh attorney Daniel M stoneberg and um we feel as though it's a it's a strong Mo MOA and it um will allow us to move forward through the remainder of the year is there any discussion seeing none we're going to have another roll call vote guess you guys are going to learn your alphabetic order real quick tonight new members member Amos abstain member
245Bennett uh Bennett yes member brown brown yes member Dennis Dennis yes member gusers yes member Haber H yes member Ember yes member kers bomb kers bomb yes member Lavoy Lavoy yes member long bullo yes member Mills Mills yes member otar otar yes member Shapiro Shapiro obain member Silva Silva yes member Smith Smith yes member Williamson Williamson yes member Woodland Woodland yes member Young young yes the chairs item number three on our agenda tonight to authorize the superintendent of schools to sign the memorandum of agreement between the wrsd and wrea early in retirement incentive uh Dr M go to you oh is there a motion on the floor so move second Dr Mall sure so um this is the uh agreement that has been um put forth by W and and the district in terms of
246putting uh a an early retirement incentive out there for teachers um we hope that we are able to realize some Savings in terms of uh some teachers taking advantage of um this option and we are um looking forward to you know putting this out there as soon as possible Is there further discussion of the motion on the floor yeah I raised my hand yes member Lavoy Dr McCall could you talk to what that incentive is and how that has either increased remain the same or varied from the last time we've offered an early retirement incentive sure so last time we offered an early retirement incentive um the payment was $10,000 um in terms of what the the payout was this is now increased to $115,000 um and again one of the things we're looking at
247is just we have many teachers who are um in the realm who are close to being um able to retire and they're maybe of age in terms of reaching their 80% um we also have to remember that we have many teachers who have been here for um multiple years you know 20 25 30 years and the um longevity funds that are on top of uh their their base salaries um make this such that we we still end up making um quite a bit of money by bringing in a a lower salary teacher um at that time so just a quick followup to that um it's my understanding when we offered 10,000 um when would when was that how long ago oh Matt you had to ask um Rebecca found it for me I'm trying to
248think um maybe 2013 Rebecca oh 2013 13 okay yep okay to get it and it's my understanding so this is my point I think that 15,000 is not a very um High incentive um in seven plus years we're going up $5,000 I don't think we had a lot of teachers take it back in 2013 um comparable districts lemonster I believe recently offered $20,000 per teacher and I think if our goal is to look at taking the most most vulnerable um people of of covid being the the seasoned teachers that might be in that age range that's much more vulnerable that we should really consider a strong incentive um for the safety of our our teachers and for the financial Savings of of perhaps hiring somebody on on a lower end of the of the salary
249Spectrum so I think we're we're being Pennywise and pound foolish here and we should look at providing a real incentive that would would really turn the dial here thank you member lvo um and and we want to get to everybody's quick comment um and try to wrap by 11 but I also have some members of the public that want their comments heard and it's extremely important to me that we do read their comments um member Dennis thank you so when we um through the chair to the superintendent when we refer to quite a bit of money have we can you quantify what that is and do we have an assessment of what passing this motion tonight would mean uh for the district in terms of a dollar impact uh so um Jeff we had talked
250about this a little earlier do you have some of those numbers Jeff Carlson I'm sorry about that I was on on mute I know don't worry but if you look at last this current budget that we put together we we had 10 teachers that retired and the breakage if you will was probably in the area of close to $300,000 so you will have some senior more mour teachers that will retire and take this incentive you know say in the range of $85 to $90,000 in salary and then you'll have a you know a less Seasons teacher or a newer teacher coming through the door at you know a maybe closer to 60,000 or 50 to 50 to5 to 60,000 so there's a Delta of of 30 to 35,000 depending upon the discipline that you can
251attribute to savings if you will so I guess as a followup to that question you know beyond the breakage of of $300,000 do we have an assessment of how many takers uh would have at this incentive level I think that relates to mass question and and what we would approximate those savings to be yeah that's a great question Mike you're really not going to know until you actually put the incentive out there and we get to look at the numbers of people that will take advantage of it so help me with that with that science um how do we know whether uh what what the cost benefit analysis is of offering for example a 10,000,000 or a $20,000 in just help me through the the calculus how do we make that determination well I think
252you you get your savings in the in the hiring the uh you know the newer teacher um as I spoke about earlier sure I mean there's no question about I understand the concept of having somebody giving somebody an incentive to retire and you replace them with somebody that that that's coming into the district you know that that's part of our breakage assumption and that's what the intention of of this incentive program is for my question is a little bit different Jeff my question is um how do we optimize what the what the preferred incentive level is um whether that be 10,000 15 or 20,000 clearly we need to make some assumptions about how many takers we're going to get at those different levels and what kind of savings we might be able to realize thank
253you well you have about 60 teachers that are eligible if you will um the incentive itself was negotiated with the w so that you know that's where you come up with your you know your $15,000 figure thank you I believe member Mills also has his hand raised yeah that was my point I think it was just that number came from negotiation so it wasn't out of a hat um also we have to remember if we go too high that we might have to be paying health insurance for the retiree and the new hire and at 78% for the retiree and um and I'd encourage Administration to think be creative if we get retirees to see if we're going to have to do quote unquote layoffs if we can just not rehire some of these positions
254and move people around to reduce the people we let go and that that way is you save the full salary right and not just the the breakage and that's a great Point Ken we would do is as much as we could do it through attrition uh so that we could hold on to other staffs the other part of it is when Jeff ran the numbers probably about 95% of those 60 teachers um have family plans so they will carry over but we also know the new people coming on board if they're younger typically they're probably going to be on a a single plan um and they won't cost a district $119,000 thank you for that clarification are there others with questions or comments and the um the superintendent actually has the discretion to uh deny
255once we get to if we get too many um and we don't need that many to retire so thank you member Brown are there others with questions or comments seeing none we'll take one more roll call vote member Amos Amos abstains member Bennett uh Bennett um stains member brown brown yes member Dennis uh Dennis yes member gusers guson yes member Haber yes member Ember Ember yes member chran bomb kushan bomb yes member Lavoy Lavoy yes member long balil yes member Mills Ms yes member otar otar yes member Shapiro Shapiro abstains member Silva Silva yes member Smith Smith yes member Williamson Williamson yes member Woodland Woodland yes and member young young yes the chair abstains motion passes um at this time I'd like to move items four five 8 9 10 11 and 12 um to
256the next school committee meeting agenda if you move 12 do we have a next meeting scheduled that is a very good point M young gracious all right before we all go crossy and fall asleep on our screens um item 12 to approve the 2020 2021 school committee meeting schedule is there a motion on the floor so moved second is there any discussion I just want to note that I think we'll probably end up meeting some special meetings in between given what's going on I would also believe that would be a wise that that was my comment as well that we need additional meetings yes uh the chair the that question um I just had a question at our meeting I think it was our last meeting um ASA brought up that um in setting the
257calendar no one had asked her about religious holidays and I'm not aware of um religious holidays that others might have that I don't have so just want to make sure there's no conflicts so um I don't know if we want to just set our next meeting date and then take the calendar of our meetings up at our July date so that people can look at a calendar if they haven't done so because we do have the new members that just joined us um yesterday as well or today um member Lavoy also has a hand I would Echo member Smith's um point there that it might be prudent to set the next meeting um just for the respect of the the newly elected chair as well to be able to look at at the schedule and
258make sure that it aligns with with um what your expectation is for schedule all right um M Jen also has a hand thank you real quick I I think it's a certainty that um this committee uh will need to and should meet more frequently than than the once before we're practically ready to restart school this summer um so yeah I think suggestion of you know setting the next meeting and then setting the calendar from there uh given the time to look through that uh makes a lot of sense so then just kind of logistically at this point um would some would there be an amendment on the floor to amend um 12 is it possible to um just retract my motion or does the floor um we could just amend the motion to was it
259seconded yes yep so could there be Amendment on the floor to perhaps approve sounds like K's making a motion to amend I don't know if he is or just daating do you have a motion to amend if I have the floor uh I'd like to make a motion to amend the motion on the floor to read uh to schedule the next school committee meeting to be July M please July 13th July 13 2020 um is there a point of order to before we talk about this motion U member chrisan bomb second in I'll second it yeah is there a point of order member guson perhaps yes because we're not gonna have time to vote do we need to extend the meeting one more time I believe we may yes you make motion I will sure
260yes to extend the meeting we won't go till 11:30 but we need to extend it for procedural reasons second second okay let's go from the top M Amos yes member Bennet yes member brown brown yes member Dennis Dennis yes member guson yes and Mer I think she left no she's there oh okay here I'll CLE back to you member Ember y's yes bom yes l boy Lavoy Ys no M yes Mills Mills yes otar otar yes member Shapiro Shapiro yes member Silva we know it doesn't mean we have to go to 11:30 right it just means we have up to 11:30 so I W yes smth yes Smith Williamson yes Woodland yes young yes and the chair votes yes and I promise new members this is does not happen every time I promise um so
261the motion on the floor was to amend the motion so to amend motion 12 to read that the school committee's next meeting will be July 13th and it was second and is there any discussion no discussion all right we'll go from the bottom this time mix it up young yes Willen yes Williamson Williamson yes Smith yes Silva yes Shapiro obain otar Mar yes Mills Mills yes long B yes la Lavo yes Christian bomb chrisan bomb yes in yes no not today the 13th yes I'll give up my birthday for you all yes I'll get I'll get you till 11:45 that day then fa Gus yes I'm sorry Dennis for all going stir crazy yes brown brown yes Bennet Bennet yes and the chair votes Amos I'm going too fast oop sorry I said yes but
262I was muted sorry yes okay and the chair votes yes we have a next meeting on July 13th um we will there is no unfinished business on the report we will do the approval of minutes our next meeting we I'm I'm sorry point of order we have to actually vote on the amended motion oh I'm sorry getting too excited to go to bed member young I apologize all right so now we have to vote on the amended motion on the floor so motion the amendment passes and now the motion on the floor is to have our next meeting the school committee shall meet on July 13th yes I will have the public all right number amamos yes Bennett yes brown brown yes Dennis could you reread the motion on the floor no I'm just kidding
263Dennis yes don't mess with me at this hour Dennis all right Gus yes is this I feel like this is some sort of like never mind all right ha trial by fire tonight ha yes Timber Bob yes that word number dentist but yes is what I went with h chrisan bomb chrisan bomb yes Lavoy Lavoy yes long buo yes Mills Mills yes otar atar yes Shapiro Shapiro yes Silva yes Smith Smith yes Williamson Williamson yes Woodland Woodland yes young young yes next on our agenda would be to go through committee reports as committees other than business and finance have not been formed yet um I actually do believe um secretary Madame secretary um Peterson has resent an email to you where you would put your committee preferences down um please do that ASAP Maybe before
264you travel to bed tonight so that we can form those committees um it also leaves a place on that form for school counil membership um we do very strongly encourage everybody to join a school council um and we want to make sure that all our schools are representative next in the agenda is our second public hearing um there was a number of um public comments to come through um during our meeting tonight and I would like to make sure those people get their voice heard our first email comes from Stacy Carroll from Holden Massachusetts and she states to the school committee I would like to encourage consideration by the district to use clear face Shields and Le of mass for faculty and students for in-person education in the fall Recent research has shown that face
265Shields are equally as effective or more effective than masks the Des a report mentions the use of reusable face Shields as an option as well Mass tend to result in people touching their faces more often to adjust and move the mask more importantly though clear Shields allow for full communication access which is particularly needed for any students with hearing or communication disabilities for example a child with hearing loss who relies on lip reading cannot communicate with classmates wearing opaque masks and the district could be potentially be required under Ada to provide that student with full-time accommodations in for in the form of translator or captioning which be far more costly than providing face Shields seeing facial expressions of teachers and classmates is important for best practices in learning for all students not just those with
266disabilities the wrsd can be at the Forefront of universal access by providing face shields for the upcoming year and potentially save money by reducing the need for costly accommodations in the process thank you for considering this option for promoting full access and enhanced learning in the face of this crisis next um we have a comment from Leslie Mason who asks can you comment on how the guidance from the American Academy of Pediatrics and recommendations for full return for school to Children plays into the decisions regarding the plans for the wrsd um I would ask for the superintendent to include that in the follow-ups that the committee has asked for on the reopening plan there's a comment regarding Middle School sports by Jordan demilio who is an eighth grader at choit Middle School dear school committee
267and superintendent McCall my name is Jordan demilio and I'm entering e8th grade at choit middle school when I heard that school sports can be caught I was devastated since I'm going to eighth grade this will be my last year to play Middle School sports and I really want to play and prepare myself for high school academics aren't the only subjects in school that are invaluable to my classmates and I School sports help young men and women develop traits like leaders ship determination perseverance responsibility and so many more in sixth grade I went to States for the long jump and came home with second place this was the best day of my life to me School sports are more than just a game they have been the reason for so many good days the fact that
268I might not be able to have other days like that crushes me being on the soccer team makes me feel accepted for who I am and that I belong I don't want that feeling to be taken away from me I feel like I missed out on seventh grade since was canceled this year and I can't imagine feeling like I missed out on eighth grade I need School sports to help keep up physical mental and emotional strength without School sports I wouldn't have become friends with so many kind and encouraging people including my best friend I would miss the excitement that pushes me through the school day when I know I have an event after I would miss seeing my friends and making new ones most of all I would miss watching other people and seeing
269new generations of Middle School sports come in the future so please don't cut Sports to me because they mean the world and then I do have um two more comments to be read into the meeting hello Holden school committee members I wanted to thank the members who urg the administration to increase communication and transparency with regard to fall planning I also want to express concern about the committee requesting that Desi increase capacity at the state virtual Public Schools the initial guidance requires districts to communicate with families and have a remote learning plan in place for students unable to return to in-person school there might be a number of reasons a student is not able to return to school for medical or social emotional reasons it is important to remember that each student enrolled in schools
270reduces our school in those schools reduces our student count and we will lose student funding in a model similar to school choice certainly this is no small task but with some creativity I do believe it's possible to be Innovative in staff allocation and realignment of responsibilities to meet the needs of the greater greatest number of our students with robust online opportunities that are engaging in full of meaningful interactions with their students and that comes from Amy mitchelli and then last we have a final comment um and this comment is coming from Lynn Hanley from 11 Wyoming Drive in Holden says good evening and thank you for the opportunity to comment I would like to Echo the comments of members Lavoy kersin bom and Smith they each rais very key issues especially for the need for
271timeline sooner rather than later related to the comments I would like to point out the following One handwashing Mount View for example has one restroom for boys and one restroom for girls per floor frequency of handwashing and who monitors the restrooms are concerned here as well as balancing that time with time on learning two decision on what the the school year is going to look like what are parents going to do with an elementary SCH school student if the schedule is one week in one week out or if the school is only a half day three make the the need to make the public timeline for Staffing and schedule awareness a the retirement incentive program requires teachers to notify the district by July 31st would the schedule and plan be in place before then to
272better inform teachers who are trying to decide whether to retire B teachers who have been pink slipped and are actively looking for jobs what might they when might they be notified if their position is being reinstated C teachers in programmatic Cuts such as Middle School foreign language Elementary music tier five cuts when might they be informed whether they have jobs or should they be looking for other work if they had not already been pink slipped D teachers who have been pink slipped an opportunity for them to work through Desi's online school programs e in addition to PD time to learn about PPE protocols teachers are going to need PD in prep time prior to the stop start to adjust the curriculum learning from learning loss in the spring as well as the plan for online
273learning if that is part of the schedule four Desi's recommendation of 3 versus six feet distancing is the district committed to following that plan rather than adhering to CDC guidelines of six foot distancing spacing in a classrooms is a big concern if we're talking about fitting the number of students in each room five busing I did not hear any discussion this evening on how to address uh social distancing and busing is there a plan in place to have more buses on each run who is expected to do the sanitizing between High middle and elementary school bus runs and that is all the public comments we have for this evening um I was hoping that these comments continue and please continue sending your comments into questions at wrsd.net with that being said um we have plenty
274of new business um in regards to this agenda for our next meeting is there any other new business that people would like to raise I see member Smith's actual hand not her virtual hand I I prefer the the actual hand okay so I have four items that came out of this meeting that I want to formally request we have on our next agenda one is that we be provided with a timeline with milestones for the reopening plan so as mentioned before don't need every single detail but we need the big details important details that's one um the second request is that we be given information about the progress of the reopening committee so to this um to this group earlier we were given a general overview but I don't feel that I have any more
275of an understanding than I had prior to that overview so the details of what that committee has done and um that's important the next item is for an third item would be request that um the district update us on what there's $25 million available for remote learning technology um that the uh deese has put out what are we doing to grab some of those funds because we need it where we're not um one: one k to8 so what are we doing to need to to supplement because reality is we probably will have a time period where we're going to have remote learning so what are we doing with that and um the last item would be a request that the school committee be updated on again to my point about remote learning we know that's
276probably going to be something we have to do we've got further um information with from the Board of Education today so what are we doing to start updating our remote learning plan because while we're looking at the buildings we also need to be looking at the remote learning plan so what's the progress on that and that's that's my four items thank you member Smith those are fantastic items um are there other members that wish to bring up new business for our next agenda I'm not seeing any virtual hands all right so with that our last item on the agenda tonight is adjournment is there a motion on the floor Megan it's Malia I had I had one other addition I'm sorry it's okay can I request that we get an update on the extended school
277year since that will be starting about two weeks after our next meeting or maybe around the time of our next meeting so we're clear on on what's going on with that um noted and again a very good point Thank you thank you now do I have a motion to adjourn so mov second second it's been moved in second and so for one last time from the top I think I actually have it memorized by now let's see if I don't have to look down um Amos yes Bennet yes brown brown yes Dennis Dennis yes Jus yes Haber himber I I want to know if if Mike denis's request for soup was a point of order but yes I I I think I need second dinner at this point before I go to bed chistian bomb
278chrisan bomb yes Lavoy I have seen you look down multiple times oh me all right do you have a vote here yes thank you yes is my vote as well thank you sir remember long B no just kidding yes mils yes I'm gonna look down sorry I was gonna say so but no it's not right Omar Omar yes Shapiro Shapiro yes Silva yes I guess I'm memorable you are memorable Smith yes Williamson Williamson yes Woodland Woodland yes thanks Megan Young and yes and the chair votes yes uh the meeting is adjourned I'll see you guys in a couple weeks thank you all so much sure congratulations Megan and Mike thank you